This mini album by tartan rock/post-rock rockers, Cayto, is a wilfully eclectic messy mix of several styles. Desperate not to be pigeonholed they set about shifting constantly, leaving the listener either invigorated or exasperated. Bully for them, no reason why they should be constrained into any one particular genre and not be able to spread their wings, just as long as they realise that the constant chopping and changing means that their albums aren’t going to successfully hang together.

As there is so little cohesion I’ll have to tackle this track by track.

Track 1 ‘C’mere: a harder edged Badly Dressed Boy when he isn’t busking for Nick Hornby’s coins. Jaunty, Jo Whiley rock with winsome lyrics.

Track 2 ‘Dirge II‘: A spectral wind whips across the tundra below lightening flashes. A wordless soundscape where the word Mogwai is shushed to a whisper. In other words, it’s an instrumental. Not a bad one either.

Track 3 ‘The Head Of A Pin‘: Moody atmospherics give way to Arab Strap style dour Caledonian mumblings.

Track 4 ‘Archimedes‘: Mental, metal hardcore thrashings. Indecipherable but presumably, due to the snatch of a Dubya Freudian slip at the beginning, it’s yet more America-bashing to add to the pile.

Track 5 ‘A Sin Of Adult Swimming‘: Hip-hip-hooray, another instrumental. But short!

Track 6 ‘Me Is What You Need‘: Epic, widescreen, windswept indie in a similar vein to Idlewild and all that lot. Probably the most successfully realised track on here. Impressive. This way, Cayto, this way.

Track 7 ’God Is Love’: They do like their instrumentals, don’t they? But this is a weighty, fierce Faith No More style pummelling. An excellent track that, with lyrics, could’ve been a decent-sized rock hit.

’Your Atoms Are Laughing’ - and I can’t tell you how much I hate that title - sees Cayto dressed to impress with their wide-ranging rock pik’n’mix, and while they have proved themselves not to be one-trick ponies the Scottish band are in danger of ending up as Jocks of all trades, masters of none. I’m not saying they should find one style and stick to it, but that getting an album of disparate sounds to work is one tricky and delicate balancing act. Their heroes, Faith No More, managed it brilliantly with their masterpiece, ‘Angel Dust’, but Cayto aren’t there yet. But this mini album sets their stall out nicely and if the manage to cohere they may yet deliver on the promise heard in flashes and shoot forth thunder.