Now here’s something worth coveting. Cougar come from Madison, Wisconsin, and they play a kind of instrumental music that it would be negligent of me not to compare to the group that defined the post-rock movement of the ’90s, Tortoise. But where Tortoise – despite their occasional brilliance – tend to be a little cerebral, Cougar are simply lovely and stirring by turns.

This is their second album, and the Tortoise connection still holds: in fact, their first album was lauded by that group, and more recently, Cougar have been touring in support to Tortoise. The similarities are pretty obvious: both tend to go for circular guitar-led motifs and melodies that could break your heart, as well as odd irruptions of electronic glitch whenever the mood takes them.

So let’s go for the differences, then. Where Tortoise have a jazz heart beating underneath their stylistic presentation, Cougar seem bereft of that influence, and instead, they sometimes go for a more typically rock, riff-laden approach. They also have very pretty, old-English folk motifs at work, but the real beauty is the way they combine these seemingly contradictory elements.

While the group does occasionally burst into a revved up guitar crescendo, it’s a long way from, say, Mogwai, whose music is all about the slow build. Cougar go for the quick thrust and cut, and will contrast that with an achingly pretty semi-acoustic session that sounds just like an amplified music box. In other words, their music has poise, grace and there’s always some nugget of auditory beauty about to come along to make you feel better about your place on the planet. Yes, there’s something bizarrely reassuring about this music.

While Cougar are hardly a household name, I would recommend this to anyone looking for something different to spin on their hi-fi. It’s a clean, rich and dynamic recording, but also has genuine artistic merit, and each track has another surprise to reveal. GARY STEEL

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