On paper, Kinobe's dossier doesn't seem to be particularly exciting. A boy/girl duo based in England, who are onto their third album, and who recorded their latest long-player in a country house in Toulouse, France. I was getting my red pen all ready when I first read this, fearing that this would be another bunch of dull British electronica, the type which has been flooding the market for years now, with music that is as ordinary as British weather. Happily though, Kinobe don't follow this lead, and their new album "Wide Open" is actually rather good.

The album begins on somewhat shaky ground, with Luciole, which sounds like an Air throw-away, with its fuzzy French-language lyrics and dreamy texture. Luckily, things become a lot more positive on Tired Heart, the next track. The same dreamy texture is kept to the music, but this time there's a definite beat, soaring strings backing up the melody, and some well-placed lyrics. The interplay between the male vocals and the female harmonies is very well done, and it helps to make this song into one of the highlights of the album.

Continuing on through the album, you come across beautiful songs like Slow Motion, which bring to mind names like Portishead, as well as interesting pieces like the reggae-tinged Moonlight and Mescaline. Mixing electronic music with reggae is nothing new, but the guest spot by Terry Callier really kicks this track along and makes it shine. The second half of the album isn't nearly as good as the first half, although numbers like Stay aren't too shabby at all.

There are a few missteps on the album though, like the bizarre Whirling Around, which might have worked on another album, but really sounds out of place here. The precise, artificial-sounding bass here conflicts terribly with the chilled-out, organic sound of the rest of the album, which is somewhat disappointing.

If there's one thing, apart from the occasional bizarre track that gets in the way of this album though, it's the preponderance of guest vocalists featured. While the selection that they've made is good, and none of the fully-formed vocal tracks sound weak or anything, the fact that every song has a different voice prevents the album from really sounding like a cohesive whole. Instead, what it sounds like is a mix tape or compilation of various artists. This might be annoying for some listeners, or not a worry for others, it was a minor issue for me, but one that became progressively more irritating, like a piece of meat stuck in between my teeth.

"Wide Open" is a good example of a nice, solid chill-out album. It's not groundbreaking or essential listening by any means, but it still does what it does very well. If you're a fan of previous Kinobe albums, or if you're looking for an uptempo album with plenty of variety, this might just fit the bill.