TL;DR Expect different tunings & melodies. Expect different instrumentation & cadences. Expect different topics of conversation. Enjoy the differences!
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First up, a nod to the album cover's artist, Rebecca: the assemblage (I hope that's a word) appears to depict the titular cave, bright & bold with an artificial window. It's made of eclectic materials that aren't neatly aligned, befitting of the sonic output.
The opener, "Shooting Stars", highlights Paul's talents. Percussion and microtonal shifting flit behind the vocals. There could be keys & strings too ... but instrument identification is not really the point, they're put together with innovative inflexion that keeps the listener engaged.
"Breath" had me chuckling. With apologies, that may have not been the desired response. Yet a poet collaborator's name forgotten and only a single prosaic word remaining was, well, smirk inducing. Anyway, back to the track itself, a mesmeric bass riff with meandering guitar, a neat shift from the opener.
"Chicken..." leans into the experimental tag: harsh lead guitar, droney bass accompany the eulogy to chicken/pork. A Theremin (?) solo flows quite naturally. You start to get a sense of the broad range of instrumentation being utilised.
Ah, "our life" ties back in with the album cover, repleat with plucked acoustic guitars, contrapuntal guitar melodies (oh yes) and waterbowl drops. The track has a wonderful energy, befitting its theme, if I've followed correctly!
"must go on" sees pitter patter percussion (tabla or bongo or home-made!) driving along with layers of strums and plectrum frenzied lead: all neatly angsty
The bass line picks up the melody for "gonnagetchya", bopping along neatly until the (spoiler alert) on-off-stop-go-stop & frenetic ending brings things to a halt.
Next up is the descriptive "howl". I hope Paul recorded his dog. Regardless, it's a rather fine canine performance accompanied by the the triple time staccato strumming.
"Visions on a stroll" is an instrumental: guitars & shakers and (I'm guessing) a swazzle. [Think Punch in Punch & Judy.] Did I mention that this album's tracks are often through-composed? There's no "verse-chorus-repeat" here, they've an improvised quality.
The closing number, "staring at the sun", keeps away from Western intonations too. No semitones here ... and what is that instrument!? Electric violin? My knowledge of the Dune novels, from which the track is inspired, is, well, non-existent. But I have a better idea of what they might be about from this; they're not going to have a happy ending, I suspect.
Overall, I've really enjoyed the listen. Any trepidation that the weird tag may have engendered is swept away by the freshness. I mean it is weird but it's thoughtful, it's composed. This is, say, 20 years old but I haven't heard much like it. There are some doing microtonal in the mainstream (that Angine de Poitrine seems to be everywhere; Maddie Ashman is a more cultured purveyor of that mode) but nothing with the sonic variety that Paul brings.
