Various Artists: Late Night Tales, The Cinematic Orchestra (latenighttales/Southbound)

Strictly speaking this should be credited to "Various Artists" because this 19-track collection is yet another in the Late Night Tales mix-tape series where an artist or group is invited to compile a disc of material which suits those lower-light moods.

The Cinematic Orchestra here bring together such diverse spirits as Nick Drake and Steve Reich, Burt Bacharach and Shuggie Otis, Bjork and Terry Callier into the same emotiional space . . . and sometimes it works (Callier into The Freedom Sounds, the Orchestra's Restaurant into Reich's lovely Electric Counterpoint), sometimes less so when it comes to a flow. St Germain's Rose Rouge is getting a wee bit thin and overly familiar.

What always appeals about this series -- and others such as Back to Mine or the Buddha Bar project -- is how it can introduce names or songs which may well have gone past you . . . here Callier and Otis perhaps, or even Thom Yorke of Radiohead from his solo album The Eraser, Imogen Heap maybe (here with Cumulus) or even an unfamiliar piece by Burt Bacharach (South American Getaway).

Interesting reading by Will Self (from The Happy Detective) right at the end too.