KELLEY STOLTZ Below the Branches Sub Pop  *****

Five years ago, a label-less Kelley Stoltz pressed 200 vinyl copies of his last album Antique Glow. He hand-painted the sleeves, sold them at shows and record shops in San Francisco and ended up with a record deal and a juggernaut of UK press interest. Much of the praise focused on his Syd Barrett/Nick Drake stylistics, but the former primary school teacher plunders a heap of genres, creating a multi-instrumental masterpiece.

Stoltz revels in garage folk and plaintive pop as much as he does in stomping psychedelic rock. One minute he's knee-high in Beach Boy melodics and David Bowie's archness, before running amok with the compositional eclecticism of Sufjan Stevens and Devendra Banhart. Sub Pop has ditched monochrome rock, embracing a new ethic epitomised by acts like Stoltz, whose instrument of choice - piano - provides the album's distinctive rhythm. An occasional xylophone adds a percussive slant, but Stoltz is happy to stick to the standards and keep things simple. From Wave Goodbye, with its honky-tonk pianos and cut-price drums, to the trippy folk of Words, the unfussy production blurs the edges, as on Prank Calls with its sung-through-a-sieve vocals.

Great albums often carry some dodgy ballast, but Kelley Stoltz doesn't deal in filler and Below the Branches is an amazing piece of work. Is it too early to mention the best albums of 2006? www.subpop.com

Sinéad Gleeson