Taking another leisurely step in his long and implausibly varied career, Peter Gabriel's latest world music offering is an instrumental collection which doubles up as a soundtrack to the forthcoming Australian film Rabbit-Proof Fence. A low-key blend of Aboriginal instruments and tropical sound effects, it continues the former Genesis frontman's longstanding habit of producing sounds which are technically brilliant but simply fail to engage on an emotional level. Roaring oceans, buzzing insects and droning helicopters are all tastefully deployed, but, the odd choral flourish aside, this is very much incidental music which rarely draws much attention to itself and is over before you know it's begun. Clearly Gabriel fancies himself as a bit of a Renaissance Man these days, but the level of self-absorption he displays here is so great that, frankly, you wonder why he bothers releasing this sort of stuff any more.
