Pan-continental quartet THE BOXER REBELLION have been cutting a moody musical dash of late. W&H were impressed on witnessing some small scale club shows last autumn, while the muscular shapes thrown by their previous single "Code Red" made it clear why Alan McGee has been happy to welcome them into the Poptones fold with open arms.
And certainly new single "All You Do Is Talk" won't harm their chances either. It comes with elegantly chilly E-bowed guitars drifting in from the Urals and unfurls around Adam Harrison's sinewy basslines and some standard-issue Keith Moon cymbal violence from drummer Piers Hewitt. It harbours elements of starsailing early Verve (as opposed to The Verve) as well as an injection of sneery Stooges when vocalist Nathan Robertson enters the equation. The way he spits out the jeering chorus ("You don't seem to listen, you don't seem to know") even recalls Tennessee neighbour Alex Chilton at his most unhinged. For a few seconds at least.
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The Boxer Rebellion are dark horses in full effect. They have the dynamics, the enigma, the volume and the necessary persuasion and on "All You Do Is Talk" they walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Certainly on this showing they sound like a band in this for the long haul.
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