Dan Abrams is well known from his stint at the minimalist end of ambient electronica. Shuttle 358 and other projects have earned him a small but strong following in the small but strong ambient scene, and any release comes with expectations of a tight, polished and evocative piece of art. Pup delivers on these expectations, with a fantastic sound, light but smooth production, and a moody, nostalgic premise.

The tracks on Pup rely heavily on acoustic and 'natural' guitar to carry the melody, which takes the edge off the usual glitching, toning and pinging of ambient electronica. The electronic elements are still here, but contribute more to the ambience rather than being right up in your face. This makes the experience less harsh, and less overtly electronic; many of the tracks on Pup sound like the wandering guitar pieces from some of Pink Floyd's more pastoral albums. Bunny organically pings the album open, building slowly into a slight, complex rhythm, but this is one of the few tracks on Pup that could be described as going anywhere. With the exception of Pup Is Seeing Now which closes out the album, the remaining tracks sound like the feeling you get lying on the grass in a field on a sunny summer afternoon watching the clouds drift by: pleasantly mellow and relaxed, but ultimately unproductive.

"I always enjoy the beginning and endings of pop songs. I wanted to know what would happen if I made an album out of just those moments."

This is the aim of the record, and explains why the whole experience feels very nostalgic. Each piece sounds like a journey back into childhood, and the tracks are perfectly constructed to deliver this mild, mellow flavour of the past. Abrams seeks to craft an album out of the starts and ends of songs, and he achieves this perfectly.

However while you cannot fault the craftsmanship, you may be left wondering whether the idea was a good one. Interesting and artistic, yes, but the albums feels stilted: stretched out to the length of a short pop song, these 'starts and ends' remain exactly that. It's hard to hear much in the way of development - either musical or atmospheric - in the tracks themselves, not just because they are short but because they are deliberately aimless, and the album as a whole suffers for it. The only cohesiveness on Pup comes through the sameness of the tracks, not because there is any real progression through the album. It feels like a collection of mood pieces, all expressing the same wistful reminiscence, and plays like an overlength EP.

Pup is an album you want to like, because of its clever and beguiling premise, and it is easy to find it pleasant enough on first listening, but it never goes further than that. My introduction to ambient music was what I still consider to be Tangerine Dream's best work: Force Majeure, music that builds a ladder to the clouds and then propels you up into the sky. Not all ambient music has to be epic, but even electronic minimalism has to go somewhere, even if the place it goes is within itself to find a deeper silence. The beginnings and ends of pop songs are found at the beginnings and ends of pop songs precisely for that reason: they grow into a song and then close off after the purpose has been achieved. By styling an album out of these moments of pop potential, Abrams flirts with the anticipation of the song becoming something, but by never delivering on that promise Pup is an exercise in frustration, with each track making you think of what might have been instead of hearing what is.

If you are in a nostalgic mood, Pup can make good background listening. The lack of any real hooks or any significant change in sound or style means this album can be stepped in and out of, and can loop for some time without becoming annoying. I can imagine Pup wafting out of a stylish steel and chrome sound system while a collection of thirty-something professionals sit around sipping a local vintage and discussing their careers - it's lounge music for people who don't like lounge music, pop music for people who don't like pop music. Legions of fans may disagree, but Abrams has stepped down from Frame to deliver something that is less than ambient music should be. I applaud the attempt, enjoy the result and appreciate the artistry and the idea, but ultimately Pup fails to deliver precisely because it was designed not to. Pup is like pop-art to ambient music's post modernism: art with the art stripped away, rather than anti-art.