RACHEL Goswell? She was the wispy singer in the translucent, shoe-gazing Slowdive in the early Nineties and is still integral to Mojave 3's deluxe Home Counties country rock.

Like Mojave cohort Neil Halstead, she has found time at last for a moonlit solo project, and just as she has hardly been in a hurry to step into the limelight, Waves Are Universal does not rush to release its hushed, acoustic pleasures.

This confessional record was prompted by "changes in her life", and it is a natural, organic work, melodic yet quirkily experimental too.

Not only does she use field recordings from a holiday in Thailand for Shoulder The Blame and Plucked, but she also has echoing vocals on Warm Summer Sun, Gather Me Up and Hope, a sound effect achieved by recording in Chislehurst Caves.

Updated: 08:48 Thursday, July 15, 2004