Quite apart from the first impressions of the striking artwork from Lucy Vigrass, which blossoms in the booklet, the opening salvo is daring in its scope. The Rairbirds sing - briefly - and an atmospheric, chromatic string line builds.

"I am out of my eyes", sings Kubb frontman Harry Collier, the tension builds, and the beats are prepared. When they finally drop the effect is thrilling, an updated big beat that makes the exhortation "blow wind blow" a powerful one.

After this hugely affirmative start comes Unknown, a curate's egg of a track that lasts far longer than it ought, with a decidedly weird central section where it sounds like Just Jack has wandered into Haight Street, got confused, and left again. All this after a decidedly funky brass section have punched out a memorable riff.

You get the picture - it's never dull. But part of the accusation of over ambitious writing can be leveled at the choice of personnel for the album. The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra are here, with the arrangements secured by vocalist Jamie Crowe. It's thrilling stuff at times, with Crowe's orchestration full of vivid moments, but occasionally the juxtaposition of styles is just too crude.

Tigerag is fantastically wide open in its initial outreach, but soon had me reminiscing, not at all fondly, of the horror that was Rednex and Cotton Eyed Joe. Even the thought of that brought me out in a cold sweat, so for that Rairbirds should receive a caution from the musical police.

Yet they should be let off just as quickly with a friendly warning, as this record has much to commend it in the way it refuses to be tied down and allocated its own genre. Certainly it's a world away from Crowe and Elton's previous efforts as funky rockers Rootjoose.

They've moved on since then for sure, and thrown everything at this venture on a brave voyage of stylistic discovery. When it works the results are startling, and when it doesn't the brain goes into meltdown. Not an unconditional success then - but a project well worth stopping to examine.

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