Album Review from Maverick magazine Feb 2009

Riding a Hurricane (Star rating 4/4)
The man in the bowler hat rocks back.
Powerfully understated album of acoustic rock from an unlikely source - Mutter Slater, the genial,bowler-hatted flute player from (now reformed) 1970s folk-rockers Stackridge,with production by the once angry young man Billy Bragg. Here Mutter drops his trademark cheery farmboy vocals in favour of a darker,deeper,hugely individual (and unrecognisable) growl. At times it's sad,at others it turns into something like a curious bass yodel,but it's always powerful.
Mutter also,apart from a couple of moments,drops his flute in favour of some decent guitar picking,sometimes bluesy,sometimes Dobro like. He's backed by a simple bass/drum set-up,the sort of snappy bouncy rhythm you'd expect from a rockabilly band. The result is a hypnotic backdrop over which Mutter's vocals dart and leap. It might be a three-piece band, and it might be acoustic, but it's not like anything you've heard before with the production making the most of the simple instrumentation.
All the songs are Mutter compositions,and are first rate,and far from straight forward,with not an ordinary number amongst them. It's hard to pick out the best...there's the plaintive yet saucy 'Excuse Me Ma'am',the singalong 'Last Train From Heartache',and the desolate 'I'm Holding Your Picture' and 'Strangers In One Room'. And the title track is a six minute epic of darkness and light.
It's a world away from Stackridge,but each track works with a dreamy insistence. Excellent innovative stuff which cries out to be heard live. Nick Dalton.