Hearing Palace for the first time is akin to experiencing an organic carrot for the first time. One recognises immediately that the object being observed is a carrot, but somehow unlike the processed, sanitised and chemically-neutered carrots common on supermarket shelves. All this time, one realises, I have been accepting this poor substitute for a carrot while the real thing, in all its bulbous, gnarled, wiry-haired and satisfyingly warty fertility, has been kept from me! At first there is something spooky about the carrot - might it actually be some crazy medieval hallucinogenic root, used by witches to brew demonic potions? Or have you just seen it form too many scarecrow - and snowman - noses?