Hot rail

Hailing, as you hoped they would, from Tucson Arizona, Calexico offer here what eventually amounts to a musical journey across the vast and varied American interior. “El Picador” begins across the Mexican border, party time in the desert, all piqatas and tequila-frenzied hombres shooting into the air, with the band parping nervously on the brass hoping they’re not going to get caught by a stray bullet. “Ballad Of Cable Hogue” is where Serge Gainsbourg meets Leone, a duet between Joey Burns and Marianne Dissard, a mini-Western set “where the snakes and scorpions run”. Hot Rails then moves unpredictably from such trad pastiche into more remote, jazz-ambient desert terrain with “Fade” and “Untitled III”, reminiscent of Talk Talk in its evocation of vast, desolate space, before reaching the city again on the more urban strains of “Mid-Town” and “Service And Repair”. Hot Rails is a fine musical slice of Americana. –David Stubbs