To date, this London/Leicester based four piece's main claim to fame has been the fact that their debut single 'The Horse' was championed by John Peel.
The band have now moved on to the point that this song does not feature of their debut album; still, it's easy to hear what caught Peel's attention. Name any significant post-punk / Indie new wave band from the 70s or 80s and you'll find traces of their influence here.
For instance, the self depricating humour of lines like "with burning rhetoric,I try hard to impress, but as it happened, we just had to undress" (The Sweetest Heart) remind you of The Wedding Present or Orange Juice while 'Never Compromise' is a cross between Joy Division's 'Digital' and Gang of Four's 'Ether'.
Nic Bunker's fine lyrics reference familiar topics of Surburban angst but rise above cliché through managing to mix dry wit with the pathos. A great line like "Reality's a void into which I pour my past "('Passing of Time') works because the melancholy tone is offset by the bright, Byrdsian feel of the song.
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This instinctive pop sensibility is also to be found in the album's killer track - A Spanish Hunger - which is a tale of feeling "cold in foreign climes" and the realisation that "the time has come to move on". This is set to a driving clap-along beat that proceeds into a great concluding motorik groove.
The more rock out moments on tracks like 'Here an There' and 'Smile' are equally impressive and show that the band can do more than just quirky and quaint.
On their My Space, Ring of Truth describe their music as "a sonic journey from Lenny Kayes Nuggets, the fire of the Bowery and London art-punk through post-punk Manchester and Glasgow, then onwards from the post-millennial NY and Scottish angular diasporas".
This sounds a bit poncey but when you hear the album it all makes perfect sense.
Recommended.
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