Some musicians know where they're from, where they're going and why. Others, such as Connan Mockasin, can only work from instinct, not only disinterested in the bigger picture as unable to see it. Take Mockasin's first album, 'Forever Dolphin Love,' which he only wrote and recorded because his mother suggested it. Or his new album 'Caramel,' triggered because he liked the onomatopoeic quality of the word, and the music and words just followed.

It was 'Forever Dolphin' Love that pricked the ears of Erol Alkan, who promptly signed Connan on the spot to his (then) new label, Phantasy. Erol's 10-minute rework of the album title track became a regular hallmark of his DJ gigs and soon artists such as Radiohead, Grizzly Bear, The Horrors, Django Django were citing Connan as an artist they most admired, in various press interviews.

This lack of interest in the bigger picture helps explain the evolution from the labyrinthine, oddball-psych of 'Forever Dolphin Love' to 'Caramel's equally inventive and unique brand of mutated, lustrous soul, almost wholly self-recorded over a month in a Tokyo hotel room.