New : Tribes - 'Baby'

Indie seems to be in pretty rude health these days - whilst there isn't the same glut of British guitar bands that we've seen in previous years, the ones that do make it through are pretty bloody good. If you filled your nappy with excitement over the Vaccines' rollicking debut last year then Tribes' own arrival on the album market should prompt similar results. Less punked up and frantic than their forebearers, this lot are more laidback and grungey but with a brutally infectious pop edge to their songwriting. I'd go as far to say that they don't really sound British (which they are), not because they're pretending to be anything else but because 'Baby' lacks the weighty UK-centric social realism that's bogged down a lot of other bands - and, more importantly, there's way too much sunshine on this album for it to have come out of Britian. I can't put my finger on who this lot sound like, the closest I can get is the Atlantic-facing Scottish indie of the Vaselines, Teenage Fanclub and 'Good Feeling' era Travis (before the drizzle set in they were actually quite a lively lot). Tribes aren't Jocks mind you, they're straight outta Camden which is kinda surprising as their record appears blissfully free of scene-conscious posing and comes across as honest, good-natured sunshine indie. Like the Vaccines, these dudes remind me of the Britpop era when you couldn't move for cracking debuts from guitar bands across the British Isles - perhaps it's no coincidence that lead single 'We were children' references that very period (you were CHILDREN in the mid 90s???? I was watching Menswear get pelted with beercans at the Leeds Heineken festival!). Those times may not quite be upon us again but for now this is more than enough - sky high choruses, scuzz-drenched riffs and tunes that will decimate the festivals come summer, in the meantime this is your soundtrack to the springtime sunshine. Stonking stuff!

Check out : 'Sappho'. It's about lesbians! BRILLIIIIANT!