Fleeing New York
Hollywood Bowl

Jagged blues-tinged guitar stomping. Frenzied boy/girl howls of “hey!”. Lip-curled whirlwinds of, for want of a less clichéd phrase, rock and, indeed, roll. Guess where. Detroit, you say? Nope, uh…Southampton.

Not that this single release from Fleeing New York is merely a set of songs completely in debt to the Von Stripes, it just seeps the sort of filthy exuberance and giddy (but slightly paranoid) abandon that made/makes a-hollerin’ and hand-clappin’ so downright appealing. And that’s just lead track ’Hollywood Bowl’, in which three minutes of boundless glam-stomping swerves to a buoyant staccato romp, almost daring you to not boogie on down. And although by the time a tambourine slows the whole thing down to a halt the repeat button seems as inviting as ever, its worth sticking round to realise that, yes, they have more where that came from. For ‘Scandinavia’ manages to give a sly nod to the decent parts of latter-day Jane’s Addiction whilst sounding…whisper it…even better, whilst throwing in fluttering yet rousing vocals and a torrent of guitars to boot. That the final track ’Surefire’ can sound more raucous still shows, if further proof were needed, that this lot really are something special. We doff our caps, press repeat, and get down…