Second solo album of the year for ex-Hot Club de Paris frontman Paul Rafferty, and also the second to appear under a brand new stage name. But whereas the first of those, Doomshakalaka, was a guitar-focused effort that contained echoes of his former outfit (concision; off-kilter time signatures; taut but powerful storytelling), Ancient Plastix represents something of a new direction. This time we’re in something approaching ambient territory - analogue synth, recorded in real time rather than chopped up and looped, routed through guitar pedals and captured on good old cassette four-track. Comparing Rafferty’s work to the pioneering likes of Yasuaki Shimizu and Hiroshi Yoshimura, the press release describes how working without ‘screen-squashed waveforms’ gave greater room for instinct to shape composition, implying that a more considered approach might actually be damaging to creativity. OK, there’s certainly nothing in these ten pieces that sounds like it arrived by accident - see also: the Doomshakalaka LP, for that matter - but the whole thing feels wholly organic. It’s also utterly absorbing.