There's a sound to these two relatively new punk outfits that just screams LEEDS like nothing else. Don't ask me why, exactly, that I get this LEEDS impression - Art For Blind are based in Barnsley - but these two songs, particularly Rays Of Helios' 'Forms Forms Forms' positively screeeeeeeeam LEEDS like nothing I've heard before. Perhaps that's a good thing - it means, on one hand, that the city that's spawned so many ace UK punk acts over the last ten years or so really does have an instantly recognisable sound. On the other hand, though, it does suggest that we've all rather heard this before. Still, it's not bad, and Airstrip One's flipside effort, 'High Hopes', has me hoping they'll indeed go on to bigger things. It's post hardcore, but not in the glossed-up MTV2 sense. Instead, Airstrip One have taken their cues from the past, and made what they've borrowed their own really quite well. They tip this split contest between bands that are more than probably mates anyway, but only just.
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6Mike Diver's Score