Grails
Red Light

Don't we all dream of a better tomorrow? I know I do - every single morning on the tube I drift away to some music or other, wishing myself toward tomorrow in the hope that it doesn't bring with it the exact same experience as today. Of course, it does, and come 8.45 I'm on the same train heading the same way towards the same office. But, still, the dream remains, and now I've discovered its perfect accompaniment.

'Red Light' could just about soundtrack any dream, be it of a better future, reminiscing about the past, or merely mulling over the present. It's pure mood music - ten instrumental tracks that take you somewhere. It's music for sunset, sunrise, sunspots and Sundays, lazy ones. It's music that doesn't impose itself; it doesn't pulverise you with volume and demand to be listened to. It just exists, and slowly infiltrates the senses rather than come knocking with a battering ram. Guitars float along, matched for pace by strings and light percussion. The occasional lapse into bombastic territory is quickly rectified, but does serve as a wake-up call for those whose stop was two stations ago.

Comparisons to Mono and Mogwai are a tad unfair - Grails aren't really that much like either. They're more the middle ground between said acts and, say, Threnody Ensemble or Clogs; capable of breathtaking post-rock grandeur, but just as likely to spiral into classical conventions. Songs like 'Fevers' and the title track itself probably should make this world go round. In someone's dreams, they do.

Sensational.