Four tracks and 17 minutes of songs from Scottish mood-rockers' first foray onto CD. The opener, The Thrill Is No More' features their trademark warm, shimmering guitars, a backdrop of almost eerie organ and solid, slowly crunching drums, with a yearning vocal that's languid to the point of horizontal but totally in keeping with the slow but building pace and arrangement of the song as it all rolls along with purpose and direction, almost like a slow-motion mix of Oasis & Stone Roses, but quite wonderful, and similarly structured. For 'Reflections' they accelerate and provide a driving slice of indie rock that, again, has more than an echo of Stone Roses in there, but with a more urgent arrangement as the rhythm section drives the swirling, ringing, chiming guitars and the vocals are upfront yet somehow almost distant, again that yearning quality just endearing itself to you as the song really hits home and stays inside you, the effect decidedly "Manchester" in sound and feel, but original, fresh and appealing at the same time.
'Silent/Silence' opens with acoustic guitar with vocal right upfront as the band soars in and the song drives on lurching rhythms and slowly riffing guitars that swirl and dive around the core of the arrangements, the vocals lightly echoed in parts to give a feeling of open spaces as the song takes off superbly.
Finally, 'Take What You Want And Leave' starts with fantastic solo guitar refrains as the rhythm section drives in, the guitars start to riff and swirl and the echoed vocals surge ahead, the whole thing so eerily addictive, dynamic, powerful in a restrained manner, rises up and provides another gem of purposeful indie-rock that really lights things up to excellent effect. More brooding than area stablemates, Rising Signs, this band are original, write great songs in a more swirling psychedelic style and this EP is a triumphal first step.