Matt Elliott's last album was a selection of unuusual remix projects recorded under his Third Eye Foundation alias. Both queasy and captivating 'The Mess We Made' follows a common path of morbid songs with piano and strings adding to the chilly atmosphere and drama, coming across like a more nostalgic version of Piano Magic. Ellliott's heavily treated vocal is an acquired taste but works well on 'Also Ran' in particular, a track which features a lullaby then warm house beats and ending with a sedate piano solo giving three songs for the price of one. Continuing the trend for evolving pieces of music is 'The Dog Beneath The Ship' which transforms from a mournful hymn into distortion and then back into the olde-worlde again with the kind of gothic bliss-out that could only belong in a church. 'The Mess We Made' itself toys with drum and bass but most evocative of all is 'The Sinking Ship Song' where it's not hard to imagine a bunch of drunken sailors bemoaning their ghastly fate as the wind rips through the rigging and the acordion plays. The only point that mars this recording is that the listener can feel a little cold taking in all these technically excellent but ultimately miserable tales.