So directly redolent of Women or, more recently, Viet Cong’s spiky, yet subtly dulcet tones (in place of Preoccupations’ somewhat monotonous, more amorphous Krautrock workouts) is Fake Palms’ Glass Walls, that they could only conceivably be of Canadian extraction. Of course, the quartet hail from the Ontarian capital of Toronto, although they may yet tap into a similarly international repute to their Calgary, Albertan counterparts on the basis of this one alone. For while opening gambits concerning the prescription of “pills or medicine” prove reminiscent once more of Matt Flegel’s lyrical predilection for mental disquietude, there is quite unquestionably enough invention on show (from its diaphanous, psychedelic chorus, to its anxiety-ridden extended coda) to, well, show that Michael le Riche & Co. should be crawling out from the shadows cast by such inexpiably indolent comparisons as this one – no matter how complimentary it may be – soon enough…

Glass Walls is lifted from Fake Palms’ forthcoming sophomore full-length, Pure Mind, which is available from September 15^th via Buzz Records.