Murcof - The Versailles Sessions

Out there, up in the musical stratosphere, lies a crossover point for musical experimentation that shipwrecks journalists, and makes a mockery of all those quasi-meaningless adjectives that get bandied about by musos. Murcof floats somewhere near this nexus point, where Guardian readers commune with avant-garde punks, everyone looks very pleased with themselves, and labels like 'drone', 'jazz', 'prog', and 'post-rock' are rendered obsolete by the ineffable. Using 17th century Baroque instruments, Murcof records works by classical composers such as Lully and Couperin. He dissects them electronically, veering between the sort of asymmetrical scrapes and screeches that leave the listener desperately embracing the silences between aural assaults, and then lurches into neo-classical interludes that sound like Nine Inch Nails covering Enigma. More installation project than music, all that's missing is the art school students painted brown and pretending to be trees growing. [Ewen Millar]