Pajo: Pajo

Herald rating: ***

You expect something sonic, tempting and challenging when the name David Pajo has anything to do with music. His former bands Slint and Tortoise - the first a wash of sound, the latter a more avant garde yet catchy approach - were instrumental rock pioneers. But this basic, simple, and sparse album sounds like Simon and Garfunkel at one of their sell-out concerts. That comparison need not be bad because it has a lot to do with Pajo's voice, but mostly because of the beautifully brittle textures.

It's not until track five, War Is Dead, when a bigger and harder-kicked bass drum boots things along - not faster, just more interestingly - that Pajo challenges us on this album.

The next track, Baby Please Come Home, conjures up a bunch of hippies sitting round with Pajo serenading them. So this all comes across somewhere between flaky and intriguing. Recorded on his laptop (he apparently sang directly into the computer), it is uniquely and cleverly made, but lacks impact and is fine for a Sunday. At any other time it can get weird and waffly. But beware of the wicked morphing of last track, Francie, which is more like the Sunday horrors.

Label: Drag City/Spunk/Rhythmethod