To call this an experimental album is to sell it short. Radiohead are experimental. Beck is experimental. Even Damon All-Bran manages to conjure up the occasional moment of genre-crossing genius. Colin Kerr is something else. While the rest of them are tinkering in the chemistry lab, he’s outside building a nuclear bomb from old washing up liquid bottles and sticky-backed plastic.
The Perilous Final Passage’` is so unlike everything else that it’s almost impossible to review, a task that isn’t helped by the fact that none of its ten tracks have titles. Opening with a burst of pulsating strings, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a classical endeavour, at least until the manic electronic drumbeats crash over the top. It ends up sounding like a bizarre Mozart-ZX Spectrum hybrid, the kind of cybernetic orchestra that the Daleks probably listen to on their days off from universal domination.
Unfortunately this is an experiment too far for most of us. Its unusual combination of breakneck beats and slow classical strings was certainly worth trying, but an entire album of it soon becomes tiring. And slightly terrifying. Clever, and almost certainly unique, but not for most palates.