Continental
Robin Guthrie is the Jimi Hendrix of dream guitar. His work with theCocteau Twinsin the 1980s sent scores of guitarists to the music store, buying up delays, reverbs, and looping units to generate clouds of shimmering guitar. The Twins haven't been around for a while, but Guthrie has only recently started to emerge as a solo artist.Continentalis a follow-up to 2003's all-instrumentalImperial. Like on that album, the mood here is thick and heavy, though the energy is more robust, especially on the title track and "Monument," as Guthrie builds layered crescendos and siren guitar lines over relentless drums.  These more dynamic tracks alternate with dreamscapes of slow, arpeggiated chords refracted through prisms of reverb and delay.  It's a mesmerizing cochlear spiral that insinuates itself gracefully, filling the room with a twinkling cascade of sound.  There are times you might wish for the intoxicating voice of the Cocteaus' Elizabeth Fraser.  In fact, it sometimes seems like it's missing. But there are also times that the underlying sound is revealed to be every bit as powerful.--John Diliberto