Termites

In fact they have a talent for not being what you expect. In the mix is lots of sampley textures and rattly drum loops floating about on top of hush-soft vocals. They could take us on a journey to Mercury Rev’s land of sleepy insects - or far worse, to the soft headed advert music world of Zero 7. Headland have some muscle though. Their flirtations with the dark arts of the sampler don’t actually stop them from being a tight little band.

They have songs, they have feeling and they can even stop their set to make the draw in a raffle (it was a charity gig). What more could you ask for?

Words like edgy, crisp and pop are very much back in the vocabulary. Thesaurus writers are working overtime to supply the current need, much like the manufacturers of black shirts and thin ties. They need to put in yet more hours for The Termites.

Like the Kaiser Chiefs there is more than a whiff of Britpop to what they’re up to, but mercifully like them they stay on the right side of the line. In other words they play short smart songs with energy and some humour. In fact they take more musical risks than that would imply and they're also fabulously loud. When that’s all done properly, it’s hard not to be charmed.