James Cooke’s debut album as Graintable is a sifted collection of ten late-night one-take synth experiments, made up of slow single-chord pads and drones mixed with analogue pulsing and bass thrumming that owes a lot, by Cooke’s own admission, to a Roland Juno 106. From a producer with a background in house and hip-hop, this is an interesting sideways move into more mellow and ambient territory, but at points it does sound like somebody new to the genre, revelling in long atmospherics for the first time, rather than the work of somebody who’s been waist-deep in these sound for a long time.

At its best, this is strong, semi-symphonic slow synthwave soundtracking (alliteration not intended), moody and expansive. The opening track is strong and the arpeggios on “Odysseus” recall Tangerine Dream circa the 90’s, while of the mellower tracks, “39” is strong thanks to its simple but determined melodic loop.

At its worst, it sounds like somebody who’s discovered that keeping keys pressed down on his Juno results in long wavy New Age-y noises and that it’s easy to make ambient music that way. “610” is on the wrong side of the fence between ambient and aimlessness while “Lighthouse” sounds like an attempt to mimic one of Brian Eno’s classic ambient works without quite enough of either inspiration or perspiration.

Overall though there are more positives than negatives, and across its 67 minute span it’s consistent and measured enough to be quite engrossing. It doesn’t push any envelopes, but if your collection of sombre moody synthwave is feeling a bit overplayed, this will give you another option.