Perfumed Land

manchester's melodic label goes from strength to strength and this debut album by the isles looks set to be by far the label's biggest album to date. there is a real buzz on these twenty-something new yorkers who have successfully distilled in their debut album everything that was good about morrissey, ian curtis and ian mcculloch into a thoroughly modern package. the isles either have the capacity to bend time and space or appear to have been born in the wrong time and place. because although their sound is very definitely in the now, it's almost as if they began writing whilst surrounded by the cream of british 80's 'miserablist' indie-pop, fell into a deep sleep and awoke with hit-seeking precision in a climate where their talents would be best appreciated. so we have ten songs which evoke english urban grey, wearing the latest new york fashion. january's striking single 'eve of the battle' switches from bunnymen to strokes with the change of a chord, whilst 'flying under cheap kites' revels in its excess of melody and discotheque-style backbeat. 'summer loans' has an unmistakably east coast groove but such an intrinsically familiar tapestry of woven guitar parts and vocal melody you'll swear you've been getting up to dance to it for the last ten years. limited double yellow vinyl set.