- xx teens - welcome to goon island

From the outset, the harp dream-sequence opener to ‘The Way We Were’ is cut into with cowbell percussion and “hey!”s - Dirtdog here playing Mark E Smith’s more articulate sibling to the tinny Marc Bolan-style vocals of Anthony Silvester.

‘For Brian Haw’ opens as a pacey little number of building guitar riffs and unison shouts. But the end transforms at the two-minute mark into a righteous monologue from the man himself. It may not be as tongue-in-cheek as the absent ‘…Terror Victim’, but it harbours the familiar knell of truth.

‘My Favourite Hat’, usually a jumble sale of instrumentation, is expanded into a clearer form while retaining the same conversational toned lyrics. God bothering on ‘Round’, the Teens laugh insanely over minimal electro bass accompaniment. It’s dark, it’s stormy – and it contains samples of birds tweeting. It seems the art of juxtaposition is alive and well.

A certifiable pop song, ‘Onkawara’ features Silvester’s shrill shout, pleading and tag teaming the ever-pissed-sounding Cash, before buzzing guitars take over. Similarly with a nod to the east, ‘Sun Comes Up’ hauls in sitars and then proceeds to pitch-bend them to exotic effect.

The form is a lot more inspirational indie than underground art students. But realistically if you want to expand beyond the London trench you’ve gotta examine what’s above the parapet; something which these Teens seem to be rather astute in learning.