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Howe Gelb, the long-term brains behind Arizona’s screwy country hybridists Giant Sand, has been releasing records for 30 years in myriad guises: only Stewart Lee will ever own all of them (citation needed – he is an überfan, though). Enjoying the sort of breakout-eluding cult existence typified by the side-project – mariachi aces Calexico – becoming bigger than the main deal, first impressions of Giant Sand can seem forbidding. The actual music on ‘Blurry Blue Mountain’, however, is warm and enveloping. Tales of outlaw country life (‘Thin Line Man’) rub against treacly jazz oddities, twangy stomps and Gelb’s ‘life works itself out’ lyrical philosophy.

Noel Gardner

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