'Yuletide' follows in the footsteps of Sharron Kraus's 2002 debut album, `Beautiful Twisted'. Here she joins forces with The Iditarod, psychedelic folksters from Rhode Island. The result is an EP of sometimes dreary confusion, with a few snatches of delight.

I'm immediately entranced with the first 30 seconds, a reversed scratchy sampling, reminiscent of Portishead or Bjork. Oh and a fine selection of bells. This disappointingly dies down and leads us into opening lacklustre track `The Trees Are All Bare', with its Dead Can Dance overtones. With Sharron leading the way on this bleak trad number, the three vocal harmonies are slightly off key and a bit out of unison. You get the general feeling of unease but that, I think, is Sharron and the gang's purpose. After a morass of instruments and noises playing against each other, and, oh yes, more bells, comes 'Lyke Wake Dirge'. It's not going to make you get up and do a jig but is pleasing to the ear after the slight discomfort of the opening track. Clearly the stand out songs are 'Gift' and 'Wintermute'. On 'Gift' the voice is light, tindersweet, like Kate Rusby, and the bleeps and noises don't seem out of place (as they often do throughout the rest of the CD). 'Wintermute' starts off with the same but this time more restrained eerie noises and Sharon seems more at home here with her stark, Maddy Prior-like vocals coming to the fore. 'Yuletide' suffers from a personality disorder. On the plus side it's going places in folk that many have never been, and for that, creative merit is definitely deserved. But at the same time the two styles aren't really melding into something that is for the better. It often feels too contrived and confused and I wonder if Sharron might do better to get back basics.

Katy Jerome