Guitars that jangle despite their rusty strings? Croaky, booze-broken vocals? We’re in Americana country, right? Hell yeah, and the trail that winds its way over yonder hill and towards all things ‘contemporary’ and ‘current’ is well dusty, sun-scorched dry and verged by shallow graves and picked-clean animal skulls. That world’s many moons away; today, this, is the past fast-forwarded, uncomfortable with its environment but regressive by nurture rather than nature.

Blood Meridian admittedly boot a little life into heard-it-before proceedings with a deep and growling guitar rumble midway through this song, the title track of the outfit’s latest long-player, but ‘Kick Up The Dust’ is a largely forgettable experience; that it lasts for less than four minutes is, sadly, in its favour.

B-side ‘Shit World’ fares far better: a saloon bar swinger, designed for execution at a knackered upright with leggy dancing girls hanging over surrounding balconies, its directness and cutting-through-the-twinkles harmonica blasts leave a more appealing aftertaste than its flipside companion. A comparison to Two Gallants’ archaic-yet-frantic folk-punk may seem obvious, but should at least paint newcomers a picture of Blood Meridian’s roughed-up combustive-blues sound. They’re still paddlers in the sizeable pool of Americana alright, but display fleeting signs of fiery soul rarely heard on modern-day honky-tonk workouts of a similarly retrospective persuasion.