With Brighton presumably still reeling from the great intemperance of The Great Escape, local coterie Egyptian Blue don’t so much soothe the headache, as create the kind of clamorous racket which leaves you scratching and thrashing your cranium simultaneously. Wilfully fluctuant, Collateral – the near-title track from the four-piece’s forthcoming début EP, Collateral Damage – is coloured with the terse acerbity of early Gang of Four; the wry, reticent vocal delivery of Tom Vek; the restive cut-and-thrust of Radio 4, among many another New York post-punk revivalist operating somewhere along much the same wavelength. It’s fantastically compelling stuff that, although that touch rough around the edges, effortlessly scythes into your short-term with real zeal.

Collateral Damage is available from June 21^st via Yala! Records.