I was in two minds about reviewing this, for reasons that will become apparent any minute. You see, it's both exciting and infuriating at the same time – exciting because this band have got four wonderful firmly Scottish indie songs on here – infuriating because you just know if this band could get into a studio and get a full-on production job, this would be phenomenal. But, as a hint of the excellence of writing and arranging that the band possesses, it fulfils its brief. This is all amply illustrated on the opening 30 seconds of the first track, “Gin And Gentlemen” where you hear a classic intro of crunchy rhythms and chiming, crisp, ringing guitars, with a melodic hook line that immediately endears itself to you. But then the vocal enters and, while tuneful, is so under produced, it's almost too taut for its own good. On the chorus, the vocals are multi-tracked to give a hint at what this could be like with a great harmony vocalist alongside. It's a really soaring song with a delicious flavour, neat twangy guitar work and a seriously languid yet strong quality to it, but begs for more production. Similarly, “Velvet Sunrise” enters with another lazily summery guitar melody and crisp acoustic strumming as another stark but in tune vocal, comes in as the rhythms tumble forward, the guitar chimes out and another rolling song arises, not quite as class as the first, but not far off, and still possessing the necessary feel to make it the sort of song you really do want to play again. “Good Morning Lassitude” is similarly structured, similarly delivered, but yet again, another potentially excellent song with more depth, this time sounding very much like a slower male answer to Dundee's Peski Kings, complete with the uplifting emotion which that band deliver by the truckload, as crisp acoustic and ringing electric guitars cruise over bouncy mid-paced drumming and deep bass, the vocals crooning out in stark excellence, a lone lead guitar break, ending the track. “Infamous Excess Queen” ends the EP with a crooning vocal, mainly acoustic based number and this time it's weird that the harmonies are better yet the lead vocal sounds more raw, although on such a short track, they can be forgiven.
As I say, potential is obvious, so someone needs to get these guys in a studio fast, and the results could be wonderful.