As a rule, debut recordings are rarely much cop. Thus it is something of a refreshing surprise that this one does much to buck the trend, replacing the usual muddy demo sound and general lack of presence with crisp, punchy production and at times something approaching real vision.

Lead track ‘Falling Down’ sets the scene, and that scene is one straight from a BBC 2 documentary about pit closures in 1970’s Yorkshire. A gorgeous French horn motif supplied by drummer Ben McCabe tumbles all over a restrained guitar backdrop, and the melancholic vocals of Paddy Garrigan complete the picture. By contrast ‘Going down on the world’ is the sound of Led Zeppellin rehearsing in a disused and dusty library, the cranky guitars welded to a steely rhythm section. Garrigan is again in fine vocal form, his voice almost breaking under the strain of such emotionally desolate lyrics, and towards the close, Scott Morley weighs in with a grouchy wah-solo to perfectly complement this.

The whole EP is cast in a twilight world of love and betrayal, hope and despair; barely restrained guitars prowling relentlessly. At times unremittingly bleak, a warmth of spirit flickers throughout and the wonderfully audio-verite approach (it was recorded in a front room) gives the whole thing a raw and human feel. This is the Pier Group all over – fantastic yet flawed.

Anyone who is at all familiar with them live will be well aware of the slightly hit and miss approach, and unfortunately at times the rest of this EP is also frustratingly inconsistent. ‘Night-thoughts’ begins with some promising rifferrama redolent of prime-era Neil Young, but then slows to a crawl and seems to lose its way somewhat. Richard Chamberlain’s voice ranges from the quietly contemplative opening to a ragged chorus, but doesn’t really take us anywhere. The band do their best to sustain some momentum, even throwing in a time change towards the end, but overall the impression is one of nagging underachievement. Equally the usually fine ‘John the Baptist’ comes across as slightly rushed, and although ‘Never Seen a Bad Sign’ is an amiable enough piece of uptempo boogie, no-one could seriously put it in the same class as the first two cuts. What has perhaps happened here is the classic debut EP mistake of failure to realise that less is most definitely more. Although remaining a fine and very good value package, as was so famously once said ‘with all these tracks ambassador, you are really spoiling us !’. This could have been a strong as fuck two or three track single, but the impact of the opening tracks is dulled by the failure of the remainder to match them in terms of overall quality. However, these minor gripes aside, at times this EP captures a band unmatched in terms of imagination and spirit at their very best.

Tom Housden