You really can't second guess the next step from Various - from sugary pop edits to smacking grime beats their oeuvre is always brilliantly unpredictable. Their latest full length album aligns itself with maudlin Scottish poet Gerry Mitchell after delivering a taster of the project on with a remix of Mitchell and Little Sparta's 'Feasting On My Heart' 7" towards the end of 2007. The collaboration allows Various to really stretch their sonic imaginations into windswept cinematic scores and surreal folk arrangements to bolster Mitchell's reassuringly dour ramblings. The crew obviously appreciate the unique and often impenetrable tone of the Scottish accent as much as we do, lending some of their finest studio ideas to compliment the morose and sinister vocal delivery. Including 17 tracks of concise and perfectly measured darkness merging field recordings with Krauty synths, fingered banjos, accordians and doomy bass with the vitriolic bile of Gerry Mitchell, you're assured an intensely unique experience. This is a riveting listen and comes with the highest recommendations to lovers of the bleak side. http://www.firerecords.com