The Violets - Foreo (Angular, 19/02)

Last time round, The Violets established that their new bassist has added to rather than compromised the jagged edges and shimmering weirdness of their sound. With new single Foreo, backed by two b-sides, they indicate that they've only just begun working out how far they can stretch their sound - and we're invited to watch the process of discovery.

Foreo itself is a high-speed number with pounding drums and Siouxsie-esque, sirening guitars bracketing a barely-controlled downward helter-skelter of a chorus. Mixed with shuddering guitar effects, rippling atmospherics and fragmented yet evocative lyrical imagery, it rocks (or possibly punks) but does so in an edgy, delicate manner which ensures it also haunts the mind.

First b-side Emerald is similarly full-on, but its energy is wrapped round and twisted in on itself rather than channelled outwards. Stop-start martial drums, bullet-point vocal yelps and a background hum which threads a creepy tension through the chorus make for 2.05 minutes of ghost-story showdown intensity. The tentative, silvery atmospherics of Hang and Fall, a plaintive and slow-paced departure from type, wraps things up beautifully, and this whole single is proof - if further proof be needed - that The Violets are a band particularly deserving of your attention and possibly even your awe.

Holl(i)y

http://www.myspace.com/thevioletsuk