With practically everything sounding like a cross between The Arctic Monkeys and Chas and Dave at the moment, it was nice to stumble across this relatively unknown act, who tread slightly more unfriendly territory.

 Though traditionally an indie rock outfit who are pitched somewhere between Arcade Fire and The Walkman, they also flirt with electronica, clearly influenced by the likes of TV on The Radio and early Suicide. Hailing from Austin Texas,  they make no efforts to disguise their orgin. Singer Matt Oliver indulges the American garage punk vocal drawl with much gusto throughout. This would become repetitious and over the top were it not for the bands talent for a good tune and the production genius of Alan Moulder.

 It’s a lush parade of guitar hooks and cleverly built multi layered musicianship. The kind of band Hot Hot Heat wished they were and The Strokes can but dream of these days. But like these commercially struggling acts, Sound Team may well suffer a similar fate. As popular as this kind of genre was as little ago as last year. The NME’s transparently cool flavour of the month mentality is seeing off many a talented act that were assured column inches previously.

Check em out live if you can they are currently stopping off at a town near you.

8 of 10

James Heward