From NYC's ace TVT label, BLUE EPIC are a fine, fully-formed and surprisingly mature buncha youngsters who formed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but can currently be found terrorising venues in and around Birmingham.
However, if your thoughts of the deep south only stretch to the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kings Of Leon, then think again - very quickly - for this youthful quartet are cut from real old skool indie guitar cloth and this - their debut five-tracker "Love And Hate" - brings a clutch of Anglophile reference points to mind.
Armed with powerful production from Get Up Kids' producer Chad Blinman, Blue Epic race out of the traps here with "Love And Hate" itself. A combination punch of fierce, molten guitars and atmospheric, catch-your-breath passages, it's a dramatic opener that announces the angst forecast which breaks over the next four tracks.
Indeed, "Time To Borrow", "Underwater" and "Roses" all employ similar sonic devices, kicking in with huge guitar cyclones, before settling for something expansive, moody and urgent. "Underwater" is particularly good: dark'n'desperate, with slightly ragged vocals from an emotional Phillip Roberson. "Roses" pushes it to the hilt, though. It's a real whiplash of a song, very reminiscent of early, cool Placebo before letting rip with a superb guitar solo recalling the late, great Adrian Borland.
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It's no slight to Blue Epic's own songwriting abilities (which are to be respected), but the EP's absolute tour de force is their wonderful, amped up and lacerating cover of Neil Young's much-misunderstood "Harvest" classic "A Man Needs A Maid" - Dylan's favourite Neil Young song, no less. BE invest the song with just the heavy tuneful gravitas it requires and Roberson's voice is indeed suitably tremulous and close to breaking. It's expansive and very lovely indeed.
Blue Epic, like TVT themselves, are a real find. Do yourself a favour and search them out. You'll not regret it - mark my words.
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