Album Review: SM Jenkins - Out There In The Zone

This is the first solo project for Step-Panther main-man Steve Bourke and it finds him shelving the noise and sci-fi surf rock of that band for a gentler, pastoral approach.

The nervous energy and frantic flailing has dissipated into six lazily strummed and finger-picked songs that bring to mind Kurt Vile and Christopher Owens. There is still a stoned vibe to Bourke as a solo artist but the songs are more direct and keyed into a heartfelt and emotionally connected time zone; Boulder Valley is the highlight of the EP, managing to best portray those elements yet still positioned in a full band sound. Autumnal rock has never sounded finer.