Though he vaguely recalls them from one of High Voltage's fine compilations, 'Towards Light' is the first proper opportunity your reviewer has had to get to grips with Manchester's THE NIGHTJARS.
And the good news is that this seven-track affair is an assured, pigeonhole-denying guitar-pop debut. Produced with clarity and skill by veteran sonic wizard Kramer (Sonic Youth, Galaxie 500, Low, Butthole Surfers and several thousand more) at North Wales' Bryn Derwen studios in a just-right-for-a-debut seven days session, it's the sound of a well-organised young band cutting their teeth with some aplomb and making like the studio has been their natural environment for donkeys years.
Rather like the recent Land of Talk record (also, intriguingly, a 7-tracker recorded on a tight budget), the thing that really appeals about 'Towards The Light' is that while many of the shapes it throws are familiar, this quartet have the ability to twist and re-align these shapes into something impressive and personal to themselves. Not a feat to be sniffed at in these days of media and stylistic saturation.
In fact - whether by accident or design - 'Towards The Light' makes a virtue of wrong-footing the listener. Opener 'You Set Me Reeling' is lively with chiming guitars, plenty of edge and grace and egged on beautifully (not for the last time) by Seamus O'Kane's tremendously propulsive drumming. It's a good start and one built upon by the more obvious Sonic Youth-ish strains of the ensuing 'Set Them Up' and 'Stay Focused' which shuttles between slow, eerie and bass-driven and bitten-off and frenetic and makes for a damn good sonic skirmish.
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The possibilities keep coming with 'Second Guess' - a niggly, wired outing with bassist Ollie Wright's vocals almost earning the epithet 'Costello-esque' - and the drum-heavy purpose of 'No Kicks'. For this writer, though, it's the closing KO that really convinces. Opening with another explosive percussive burst from O'Kane, the aptly-titled 'Bass Drum' assembles itself into a suitably incendiary finale, but it's the preceding 'MDMA' that really scores. Copping more than a passing interest from the Velvets/ Spiritualized, it's tinged memorably with psychedelia and delivered by Ollie in sing-speak fashion recalling a young Lou Reed, before rising to a repeated chorus of "I need a cigarette/ I need to see you later." Exciting, release-seeking stuff indeed.
But really, 'Towards The Light' is consistent and commendable in all departments. It's the sound of yet another potentially great Northern band finding their feet and stepping out into what could well be a glorious dawn. Very good indeed.
(www.thenightjars.com)
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