Ngan

The three musicians who form Gnoomes hail from Perm, deepest Russia -and have a deep connection with their home - indeed their drummer Pacha is descended from the Komis, the indigenous pagan people of the area before Russian culture and orthodox religion overtook it in the the late 15th century. Yet rather than being confined or frustrated by their surroundings, the three-piece outfit have used their origins as a springboard to the unknown, via the skysurfing radiance of their debut album for Rocket Recordings, 'Ngan!' "We think about isolation as a dream trigger, and sometimes a dream becomes a motivation to do something cool" Gnoomes relate. "Being in a band is the one thing that keeps us from Russian madness."

'Ngan!' is an album suffused with a potent sense of wonder - it's bookended by the enormous twin psychic monoliths of 'Roadhouse' and 'My Boy', which form dreamlike aural travelogues clocking in at around a quarter-hour each, and take influences as diverse as the fiery avant-six-string scree of Atlas Sound, the classic motorik of Neu! and Kompakt label techno, and sculpt them into a wide-eyed, kaleidoscopic sweep of sound that the band themselves, keen to break free of generic convention, dub 'stargaze'. It's a style which nods to the melodic sweetness of The Flaming Lips or Tame Impala as much as the synapse-shifting dynamics of Animal Collective or My Bloody Valentine.