Amazing Baby

New York's underground music scene is pretty much like any provincial bus service you care to mention; you wait for what seems like an eternity (or in the case of NYC, approximately five years) for one to come along only for a handful to arrive at the same time.

Following in the acclaimed footsteps of people like Chairlift, A Place To Bury Strangers, Parts & Labor and current tour buddies MGMT comes Amazing Baby, a collective built around the core duo of vocalist Will Roan and guitarist Simon O'Connor, but whose members can vary anywhere up to double figures at any one time depending on logistical circumstances.

This evening they number six in total, for what is their second performance of the day having opened for their somewhat more renowned fellow Brooklynites sold out show at Nottingham's Rock City venue some five hours previous.

Unsurprisingly then, the band are a little bedraggled and worse for wear, having obviously spent the interim period getting wasted, albeit in an elegant rather than incoherent fashion. Nevertheless, that doesn't stop Roan's between-song banter being little more than half-hearted requests for "more drugs" and such like.

Musically, it would be difficult to look beyond The Brian Jonestown Massacre for Amazing Baby's divine inspiration, although on songs like the superlative 'Head Dress' and 'Pump Your Brakes' there is a healthy upsurge in the tune department that sets them apart from many of their psychedelic navel-gazing cloned contemporaries.

For the finale, MGMT's Andrew Van Wyngarden and Ben Goldwasser join them onstage for a rousing rendition of Jackopierce's 1988 staple 'Sweet Ocean' that suggests Amazing Baby are digging even further back in time to search out their true roots. One suspects that when they eventually find them, interesting times surely await.