Do we need another angular guitar band you ask? Well probably not but yer getting one.

Conner have taken the retro baton and run with it like their very lives depend on it. They are indeed an odd bunch in sound. Like Franz Ferdinand who made it cool to plough through their parents record collection, lifting influences from the likes of Talking Heads and Wire, Conner have gone one further and adopted some rather unusual new romantic tendencies on top of these regimented guitar riffs. The album opener for example, ‘Silent Film Score’, sounds not unlike Adam Ant at his most flamboyant.

Hello Graphic Missile ticks all the right boxes, sounds like it was recorded in a biscuit tin, does exactly what it says on the packet, but desperately tries to break the mould by throwing in what they think you won’t expect. The press release sites influences as far flung as The Smiths and Iggy Pop, but don’t expect too much of that. Let’s say Franz hadn’t happened or The Strokes or Kings of Leon and just maybe Conner would have had a look in, but as it happens the aforementioned did happen are doing very nicely thank you.

‘Hello Graphic Missile’, Isn’t particular big or clever and the stripped down production sounds more local band on a first demo experience rather than the intended lo-fi ambience, but its not all doom and gloom, there are genuine moments of originality when they occasionally forget the stars in their eyes routine, but they have a long long way to go.

5/10

James Heward