Cloud Control: Dream Cave

Following on from 2010's lovely Bliss Release debut, Australia's Cloud Control moved to the English countryside to record the follow-up. Dream Cave is full of space and disparate influences. The ghosts of Fleetwood Mac hang heavy over the hazy The Smoke, the Feeling; the title song harks back to doo-wop; and Dojo Rising is deftly drawn pop, with its clanging guitars and frenetic percussion. Cloud Control are caught between the past and the future, with singer Alister Wright searching out firm ground. When they are conservative, it doesn't work as well (on, for example, the plodding Tombstone). But when they cut loose, as on the synth-based Island Living, they are tremendous. Artwork is by Leif Podhajsky, who created the covers of Tame Impala's two records, and Cloud Control share much with their fellow Australians. However, their vision brings them from the Blue Mountains of Australia to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia with interesting results. Download: Dojo Rising, The Smoke, The Feeling