'No Place Like Home' has the familiar warm and classic feel of Nick Drake, featuring cello, acoustic guitar and jazzy percussion. But whereas Nick's voice is rather shy and wan, Kate's is tumbling, girlish and exuberant. It combines perfectly with her lyrics and the gentle rock-a-bye of the music to paint a very attractive picture of family life's security. The cello break takes a visit to 'All You Need Is Love's trippy glade, while on the song's coda the voice and strings climb and intertwine prettily, creating the sense of day after day of happy sunrises.

Different but no less lovely is 'Star'. It opens with rolling guitar and vocals like a loved-up Unbelievable Truth. But unexpected chords cause things to tilt, then the cello starts going all John Cale, scrawling crazy whorls everywhere, and the drums begin to speed and stumble. Kate's clear voice disappears under the swell as the song submits to a teethgrinding sensual overload. The lyrics are obscure but could be hinting at how an excess of sex and love and rock & roll can make life seem incredibly beautiful and incredibly screwed-up all at the same time. It's great to hear an ostensibly "acoustic" act work up something so strange and dangerous in order to take the listener somewhere new.

After that, 'The Boatman' represents the inevitable psychic breakdown. A chiming guitar and cello drone usher in a wintry stasis, in which Kate's cool voice weaves the tale with some fine lyrics: "folks you know mouth their lines like actors". The frost lines threaten to cover everything; then there's a gorgeous moment of thaw and the song is flooded with flute, Indian percussion and vocal harmonies. It makes me think of an Eastern godhead gliding into view, all swirling hair and golden eyes bringing a sense of healing and peace. Quite why the song then floats off into a celestial ballroom is unclear but it's pleasantly proggy in the spirit of Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' album.

Unfortunately prog can also smother things with a leaden earnestness and the lead track 'Homefront' suffers from this. There's still some of that leafy magic but not much of a tune to go with it, and 'Homefront' seems rather malnourished compared to the abundance of the other songs.

'Homefront EP' is a concise and inventive introduction to The KGB's startling sensual world. If you're a Kate Bush, Nick Drake or Richard Walters fan you'll love losing yourself inside.