Zervas & Pepper
Album: Abstract Heart
Label: Zerodeo
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.zervasandpepper.com

Paul Zervas and Kathryn Pepper may come from Cardiff, but they make music that you'd readily believe were recorded back in the vintage days of Laurel Canyon. They've augmented their palette here, adding synths (notably on Laika) and Indian textures, but the bedrock remains, opening cut Miller, a reflection on a misspent youth, sounding like pure CS&N, indeed the lead and rhythm guitars are actually played by Marcus Eaton, David Crosby's guitarist, while the instrumental finale of the title track suggests it could well take off into a 70s FM jam in a live setting.

Apparently, much of the album was born from confronting issues from which its predecessor had sought to escape and, while the duo aren't wholly forthcoming as to what these may be, it explores themes of disillusion, mortality and spirituality, the soft shuffling closing track, Celestial Friend, which features former Counting Crows member Matt Malley on tempura and Indian slide guitar, touching on personal experiences of bereavement and a belief in the spirit living on. Elsewhere, the jazzy mellowness of the keyboard underscored These Blurred Lines draws on the economic divide in India,which they've visited prior to starting work on the album, and the observation that, in a materialistic world, it was the have nots that seemed the most content.

As you'd imagine there a very laid back sunny vibe throughout, Pepper's Joni-esque vocals airy and warm on the eco-themed Terraform, the stripped back Here and Now and Reach Out (a celebration of the freedom of life on the road on which Robbie McIntosh plays lead) while the musical mood's lifted with more soaring harmonies and guitar jangles on such tracks as Foolish Dreamer and Silver To Chrome, on which they sound a lot like America while We Are One's hippie-esque call for togetherness mingles Fleetwood Mac and Jefferson Airplane's headier folk influences.

Resolutely retro it may be, both in sound and sensibility, but if you're inclined to a take a journey though the past this is one fine time machine.

Mike Davies