Wild Bill Ricketts - John Dryden

Rating: * * * *

The rate of solo albums and side projects from the ranks of the Phoenix Foundation could induce the worry that all that moonlighting might be hampering the band itself. Now even percussionist-keyboardist Will Ricketts has got in on the act.

But there's not too much here that would sit comfortably in a Foundation set. The extended likes of Jawbone and New J, though, have echoes of Hitchcock, the band's Ricketts-penned instrumental, while Mangi Mangi and Why Some of Them channel Marvin Gaye into its sinewy grooves, having been given a summery overture by opener Coconut Tree, a sweet Harry Belafonte-Pasifikan crossover.

Ricketts himself leaves the singing to his guests, his many ring-in players extending to a family tree of significant Wellington bands. But as composer, arranger and producer, he harnesses this into something quietly compelling, part dreamscape soul, part low-voltage electronic soundtrack to an imaginary movie - a film that by the sounds of it you'll never quite understand but will sure enjoy losing yourself in more than once.

Russell Baillie