To describe the music of The Hobknobs, use the word natural. And what you will mean is: fitted to itself; essentially, albeit politely, uninterested in whether or not youre looking. You might think of early rock n roll and youll be thinking of its energetic nonchalance and honest economy minus any sentimentality. Sonically and lyrically, the elements of the songs dovetail showing how they move but giving no temptation to take them apart. The duo Yaël Dekker and Arie van Vliet have long admired each other's music but their collaboration here is not a closed conversation -- at the same time colloquial and cerebral, we are invited in, if we can hang. As a natural thing is self-possessed, The Hobknobs deftly maneuver so that we stand with them, hearing and seeing with them, and find that each song is a place to be. Karina Gill