Starless & Bible Black – Shape Of The Shape (Static Caravan) After an extremely well received debut record, Manchester’s Starless & Bible Black return with a gentle and warm sounding successor. Mixing Northern indie with West Coast country rock and psych folk drones not only sounds a good idea on paper, but also sounds pretty good when recorded. Vocalist Helene Gautier draws heavily on the legacy of Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell and Hope Sandoval, and any number of folk divas you’d care to mention, while guitarist Peter Philipson strums like a Village Green Stirling Morrison and synth man Raz Ullah applies ‘the treatment’. There are plenty of highpoints. The mercurial “Hanging On The Vine” with its perfect interplay, and is far too short at just under five minutes. Then there’s the glorious slow-burn atmospherics of “Les Furies”, not a moment too long at close to ten minutes. If you’ve yet to discover the joys of Starless & Bible Black, see below, or wander over to their MySpace page. You wont be sorry. Rob F. Starless & Bible Black P.S. The band take their name from a 1965 Stan Tracey cut, rather than the King Crimson album of the same name. Although, Stan Tracey probably lifted it from Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. Next