Barely a year old, Abingdon techno-pop crew Neustar are already turning heads. They’ve already contributed to the Skittle Alley’s ‘Underground Metro’ compilation while this debut EP spreads their creative wings further and displays a young band on the cusp of something a little bit special.

Lead track, ‘Casas Revenge’, sticks around for a good six minutes, led around by a cheerily mesmeric bassline that’s been deliberately pitched somewhere around bowel level. As such the immediate reference point seems to be Hawkwind, but add singer Emma’s cutely exotic voice, some fluttering drum’n’bass rhythms and an overwhelming feeling of encroaching darkness and thoughts steer more towards Massive Attack and Tricky. Second track, ‘Fletcher’ is far more downbeat and minimalist, again with some light trip-pop leanings and understated orchestral stabs but maybe lacks any real identity and at nearly seven minutes long, eventually outstays its welcome, something that’s equally applicable to ‘Imersed’ later on the EP. So they go back to bolshier beats with ‘Hypnotise’, resurrecting the ghost of early 90s swamp-hop protagonists Senser, heavy metal guitar onslaught and all.

At the moment Neustar’s downfall seems to be their lack of brevity. Only ‘Casas Revenge’ has the legs to carry it the full mile. Beyond this though, they’re exploring some interesting musical avenues and their future explorations should be worth watching with interest.

Jo Grant