RINGFINGER: The Hastie Sessions CD-EP

Now this is why I do all this - a CD drops through the door by a band you don't know - a young band at that - and you stick it on to find that not only is the thing sheer class with some fine songs on it, but the production is great, the singing and playing is great and you wonder how such a relatively young band could come up with something that many an older band spent years to refine. In "Dundee Scene" terms I'd class them as the missing link between The Rising Signs and Isis - not quite as deep as the former, and not as addictively commercial as the latter. That said, their brew of chiming guitars, soaring vocals, glorious harmonies and influences that could conceivably stretch from The Byrds to Radiohead are well in evidence. All male, they are a Brechin-based quartet of dual guitar, drums and bass, with one guy on vocals, so presumably he's overdubbed rather than there being group harmonies, so you wonder how that's gonna sound live - but I digress.
All four tracks on the EP have that high-flying yearning quality while playing and singing just oozes passion from every pore. Jangly guitars stand next to more powerful guitar runs as the songs pour out of the speakers with quality written all over them. The mix of the ringing guitar-led verses and the smoking brew of the harmony-laden choruses on 'Tomorrow Will Come' is quite superb, as the song roars to a final end point just short of five minutes in magnificent guitar-blazing fashion. The support and sound of the rhythm section is exemplary throughout with solid work on all tracks. Starting with the more anthemic 'Big Wall', things gradually become more powerful as the tracks progress, so that the final 'As Proud As Me' is a potent barnburner of powerful "Americana" styled song-writing. But, there's nothing less than utterly satisfying on here! For now - get this - you won't be disappointed.

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