It's been a bit of a wait between drinks for the Abunai! faithful since their very well received 1997 debut Universal Mind Decoder, but we think it has been worth it. Conceived as a shape-shifting, battle-of-the-bands mock-compilation, with all parts played by our intrepid Bostonian foursome, Abunai's second long-player Mystic River Sound extends the Krautrock-meets-noise-folk-meets- space-pop mix of their debut even further, in the process forming a veritable encyclopaedia of guitar bliss directions and neo-psychedelic intrigue.

"Tomorrow" kicks the album off with a folk-inflected bass line leading into a pop song that looks wistfully back at the paisley underground as well skywards at a kaleidoscope of stars. The lads scratch the Fairport Convention itch with pulverizing versions of "Barbara Allen" and "Sweet William", which traverse the landscape of traditional balladry like mythical behemoths, kicking over thatched huts and standing stones on their way to share several kegs of ale with the Goddess. "Learning To Ask" recalls the best of late 80s UK dream pop, and wouldn"t be out of place as a classic Creation label 7". "To Think That You Knew" and "Vanishing Point" have their genesis in lysergic improvisation, and most closely recall the freewheeling jams of the first record, as does the 7 minute "hidden" MP3 format data track "Lockjam". The biggest surprises come with the sci-fi rock of "Mechanical Kingdom" and the proto-metal "Rock Song", which invokes a garage chord sequence not dissimilar to that of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" to form a framework for some of Brendan Quinn most emphatic riffing. After the record concludes with the anthemic signing-off song "Toast", most folks are going to be in little doubt that they have really been somewhere Mystic.