Twenty years on from Japan, Karn is still the bass player’s bass player, only a lot less dull than that might sound. His consistently groundbreaking, idiosyncratic technique has bubbled and brooded through a series of solo LPs and “No 1 in the Far East” collaborations. This self-made slab of serenity sees him melding guitars, clarinet, samples and spoken word in nine mood pieces which swing from winningly funky (“The Jump”) to cinematic noodling (“The End Gag”). I can’t imagine anyone into Eno, Sylvian, Talk Talk or, for that matter, the better Radiohead tracks finding it less than transporting and beautifully optimistic.
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