Skimskitta

A soul record. By a singer-songwriter. On Warp. Electronic music, but not as we know it. Its predecessor, OneOnOne, was red, but this is white. Beautiful, evocative, romantic, a 61-minute piece, or movement, with no spaces, no gaps, and lots of interesting noises conjured from unusual sources. Mira Calix says that Skimskitta, her new album, is all of the above. Controversially, she also considers it a guitar record. Hardly any of the 21 tracks, she says, are without some element of her battered Fender Stratocaster. Not that you can pick out big riffs or anything. Nor, even, could you really say that her time playing with Radiohead has necessarily taught her how to redefine guitar music. You'll also struggle to pick out the vocals. But they're there. Skimskitta is just Mira Calix, and just sounds like itself.