The Muscle Club - 'Fragmented Ideas from Young Lungs'

Label: Killing Moon Records

Hailing from Cardiff, this young quartet have arrived with a mini-album packed with indie guitar jangle, shouty choruses, melodic riffs and witty literate lyrics. With knowing hat-tips to Kate Bush, by way of The Futureheads, they have succeeded in injecting a fresh energy into a form of jangle-pop that has a tendency to sound over-familiar these days. This collection does more than imply that The Muscle Club may well have an edge that makes them stand out from the crowd.

7/10

Download: ‘I’ve Never Read Anything’, ‘Alright! Okay! You Win!’, ‘Damn These Circumstances’.
For Fans Of: The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Tokyo Police Club

Flea Market Poets - 'Dirty Days'

Label: Lemontree Records

While they may be a multi-national outfit (America, Ireland and Germany), Flea Market Poets are steeped in a brand of earnest guitar rock that evokes memories of the US college radio bands of the ’80s and early ’90s. The infectious piano hook on the title track and the Buck-flavoured riffs of ‘Captain Nate’ and ‘Indie Rock Imperative’ reflect a sweaty club apprenticeship that has served the band as well as it did their predecessors. A seasoned and warm collection.

7/10

Download: ‘Dirty Days’, ‘Indie Rock Imperative’, ‘Black Heart’.

For Fans Of: Live, REM, Tragically Hip

Engineers - 'Three Fact Finder'

Label: Kscope

Two years in the making, ‘Three Fact Finder’ immediately introduces a mild mix of electronica and guitar not unlike co-producer Ken Thomas’s work with M83. While the electro fling proves to be sadly temporary, ‘International Dirge’ and ‘Helped By Science’ establish the core sound of the album, which is one more awash with harmonised vocals and lush guitars than anything else. On ‘Hang Your Head’ the band’s ‘shoegaze’ impulses reach their summit. While the album could have been doing with more of its impressive electronic strokes, it is a fine foray into what must surely be the last genre left for a spot of revisionism.

7/10

Download: ‘Clean Coloured Wire’, ‘Helped By Science’, ‘Hang Your Head’.

For Fans of: My Bloody Valentine, Ride, M83.

Belladonna - 'Hey Weirdo'

Label: Vandal

In an act of dismantling the conventional band set-up, riotous Geordie duo Belladonna have arrived with a debut album packed with trashy glamour. Driven by distorted bass, samples and sassy harmonies that touch on the B-52s, ‘Hey Weirdo!’ is the sound of a duo creating gold out of the deliberately minimal sounds at their disposal. When the luscious vocals turn devilish on opener ‘Viva Love’ the album shoots off and doesn’t stop speeding or shaking, confidently switching from one sonic all-girl road-trip to the next. Belladonna say ‘burn your guitars’, on this form they’ll burn all in their wake.

8/10

Download: ‘Don’t Be Fooled By The Romance’, ‘We Are Your Diversity’, ‘Viva Love’.For Fans of: Detroit Cobras, Kasabian, The Kills.