I sought this out (like most) after hearing the cover of Heartbeats, promptly snapping up Veneer and then wanting more. Until recently this really was it. Simply put this is the "what Jose did next" piece. In some ways it is more of the same gentle subtle music with his softly delivered somewhat vulnerable sounding voice but there is plenty to enjoy here.

For one thing there is the addition of precussion on all the pieces. It doesn't exactly make the sound all that much more but it provides some neat counterpoint to Jose's guitar and makes the pieces sound a little warmer. This still does not detract from the fact that playing on this is beautiful. Gonzalez is a very gifted guitarist and his playing on this ep is crisp and beautiful and operates in the same kind of strange tunings favoured by Nick Drake.

The songs themselves also betray some wonderful moments. The ghost of Nick Drake wieghs heavily on lead track "Stay In The Shade" which here gets an extra 30 second opening which really does mangages to make it sound even more some lost song Drake may have rejected as too bright for "Five Leaves Left". The rest are all new pieces which (at the time of release) were unavailble elsewhere. The other originals seem lighter in tone than Veneer's songs "Down The Hillside" is brightly played despite rather dark lyrics whilst "Sensing Owls" is a little gem of a song with a lovely circular guitar line and the most effective use of precussion. It's an odd little song but, for my money, the best thing he's written this far.

The closing pieces are a cover of "Hand On Your Heart" which is transformed from a throwaway bubblegum pop song into something full of regret and an instrumental piece which further states the case for his prowess on the guitar. Yes, the Kylie song and "Sensing Owls" were later paired together but the others are not widely available which is a shame as they deserve to be heard by more than mere completists as this ep really does compliment the Veneer album exceptionally well.

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