A Place To Bury Strangers - Onwards to the Wall (CD, Vinyl LP)

This EP starts STRONG! Clanging bass and breakneck hi-hat and screeching Bauhaus-esque guitar build up a kind of combination of frothy momentum and icy control that reminds me of Bitch Magnet. Marvellous opener, and the guitar tones are wonderfully detailed with slicing treble sounds. The singer sounds quite a lot like Ian Curtis and that's not the only Joy Division similarity to be noted here but there's a fuller sound at work here and they're certainly far more than mere copyists. In 'Onwards To The Wall' they get a bit of a motorik kraut groove going on with sheets of metallic drone and Hooky-esque bass and nonchalant boy-girl vocals, before the more pumping drift of 'Nothing Will Surprise Me' with its obnoxiously wibbly synth intro kicks in. These guys fly through a variety of styles over the course of this EP and with no small amount of style and confidence. I bet these songs destroy live, too.