Cancel the Astronauts - Animal Love Match

Continuing in that great Scots tradition of fuelling loved-up alt-rock with an interstellar designate – see We Were Promised Jetpacks, or King Creosote’s Rocket DIY – let’s hear it for Edinburgh vim-pop five-piece Cancel the Astronauts.

They’re not a million light years from the Jetpacks’ rousing power-indie, nor KC’s melancholic viewpoint / melodic vigour, and their fusion of barbed words and dark thoughts with irresistible, upbeat hooks and tunes makes for a stirring debut album.

CTA’s high-octane, ultra-bright indie-rock sounds alternately fresh-faced and familiar (there are echoes of PIL’s ‘Rise’ as ‘Lekking’ progresses, and Elvis Costello’s ‘Watching The Detectives’ is conjured on ‘Promises of Strangers’), while resplendent recent single ‘Intervention’ talks about impending stars and sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Album launch, Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh, Sat 15 Sep.