Lamb Lamb

Lamb: Andy Barlow, Louise Rhodes.Additional personnel: Steve Christian (guitar); The Cheinksaw Sisters (cello); Graham Massey (vibraphone); Paddy Steer, Dan Thorne (acoustic bass).Louise Rhodes' acrobatic little-girl-lost voice and Lamb's sparse background atmospheres dare you to make the inevitable Portishead comparison. It's a mean and dirty trick, though. Scratch the surface and you'll find that Rhodes and instrumental maestro Andrew Barlow have little in common with Bristol's noir-chic contingent. LAMB carves out a strange space for the Manchester duo between the hectic breakbeat bluster of drum n' bass and the jazz-and-blues-inflected chamber folk of Joni Mitchell and John Martyn.Lamb's points of reference are strange but wonderful. Rhodes' delivery combines the traits of a torch singer, an R&B siren, and an acoustic singer/songwriter into a ravishing and complex vocal identity. The very Mitchell-esque "Zero" shivers, bare and beatific, within a minimalist arrangement of cello