Lovesilkpalemilk - Lovesilkpalemilk

In a fair and just world the debut album by Sweden's Lovesilkpalemilk would be absolutely huge. I mean, it is an album with an impressive sense of scale but it's unlikely they'll be NME cover stars. The album is being released by the consistently wonderful Paradigms Recordings, a London based label which specialises in rather special (and rather limited - this one's 200 copies) releases and I've had it on repeat since it dropped through my mail slot.

The band combine propulsive, Joy Division-indebted basslines to epic guitars and ever-so-slight, some might say ethereal female vocals. The songs are sweeping and graceful but also employ a love of feedback and noise which The Jesus & Mary Chain would be proud of. Which is not to say that Lovesilkpalemilk are somehow 80s post-punk throwbacks; the music sounds too fresh, too strange to be that easily categorised. They've managed to put a sense of art, love and purpose back into 'post-punk', a term too often used to describe even the laziest, slightly angular guitar band.

The band take their reference points from 'scenes' such as shoegaze, post-rock and post-punk but instead of trotting out some generic anthem (another ode to disaffected youth perhaps), they make something otherworldly, powerful and haunting. Take opening track 'Lullaby' and it's combination of radio static, descending bassline and hypnotic vocal; it sounds urgent, exciting and troubled but you're never entirely sure what's going on. It's a great dive into the unknown.

The three-song-cycle which makes up 'A New Way of Thinking' brings the album to a startling and starry-eyed conclusion. Guitars reach for the heavens and the hair on the back of your neck stands up. When it finishes you just hit play again. There's a distinctive nocturnal vibe to the album and it would probably make the ideal soundtrack to a meteor shower or some other such cosmic event.

Lovesilkpalemilk have produced the kind of album so many bands would love to make, it's just that most others fall slightly short of the mark. Lovesilkpalemilk have left the earth's atmosphere and they just keep on going…..