Baikonour - Your Ear Knows No Future

His music is nowhere near as secretive, though his source is rather apt, given the stellar textures he often uses on Your Ear Knows Future, which glints as the sunlight hits its harsher, treble edges.

This is record you're likely to enjoy most in a vaguely horizontal state, which is where the comparisons to compatriots Air come in. And just as the Parisian pair have the occasional penchant for turning up the guitars, Krieger has looked to use the same technique for this album, often starting out with the bare building blocks of a track before steadily adding layers, intensity and more complex rhythms.

This can sometimes happen to thrilling effect, particularly when establishing a tonal centre or breaking up the rhythms into double speed, as happens on Ye Ama Piooo!, with its fast-slow overlap. Affecting, too, is the way in which Summer Grass / Winter Worm works. Starting out with a piece of otherworldliness you might expect from the likes of Brian Eno, it adds a brick heavy beat and generates considerable momentum.

It's all about atmosphere with Krieger, who often provides shards of melody rather than something specific to latch on to, making a series of intriguing loops combining to make a more powerful whole.

Just occasionally he veers towards the world of the progressive rock instrumental, particularly with the guitars and snare sounds on Tombahead, yet more often than not the music seems to look towards Krautrock or occasionally the sounds of the Jesus And Mary Chain for its overriding inspiration.

On Chiru, the shimmering wall of guitars can be admired, as can the lovely toll of bells that opens Fly Tiger. And elsewhere the raking sound of processed sitars adds a brief note of the exotic to the end of Fly Tiger.

The only problem with Krieger's music here is that it isn't consistently memorable enough to make it through to the foreground. Admirable timbres, rhythms and melodic snippets are all very well, but what is found wanting on occasion is a really substantial piece of original thinking to set him apart from the field.

As a result You Ear Knows No Future works well as a background record, and will probably cast its hypnotic spell in the live environment, but can't be regarded as particularly groundbreaking.

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