Sunset Scavengers / iComa

CD single – BFTI Records

Having played in the US in recent times and on bills with Band of Skulls and And So I Watch You From Afar, this Birmingham crew may be in a position to break through. So a new double-A single from this quartet is welcome and comes in a beguiling wine-red sleeve.

Main songsmith John Kelly has worked with associate Pat Donaghy on ‘Sunset Scavengers’, a band production assembled at Magic Garden in Wolverhampton.

The lead song has steady drumbeat and grinding fuzz guitar riff which starts to weave with other guitar twists against a joint vocal which has an almost clipped Soundgarden vibe. The chordal inserts are not predictable and recall Blue Oyster Cult, reaffirmed by a brief legato guitar run – presumably by Tony Wilkinson. Oddly hypnotic and happily not shouty !

Second number ‘ iComa’ has a twisted loping pace before settling into an uptempo passage dropping into a jungly pattern under the verse. The vocal sounds haunted as a sinister ascending guitar progression snakes from under it, tension maximised by drummer PaulCollins.

Plus points include the confident basslines of Jase Holgate, the original vocal sound that he and Kelly blend into and the fact that the group clearly isn’t modelled on a particular act.

These songs aren’t radio-aimed singalong anthems and all credit for that. Do they have other slightly edgy songs that would promise a distinctive album ? Can’t say, but we’ll be listening

Pete Sargeant     www.fairhearing.co.uk