By Michael Osborn BBC News Online

Sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton made a huge musical name for themselves with chart-topping girl combo the All Saints.

An acrimonious split well behind them, the girls decided to keep it in the family and have bounced back onto the music scene as a duo - deftly named Appleton.

Their debut single Fantasy shows a change in direction, without the soulful and urban input of former bandmate and artistic influence Shaznay Lewis.

While Lewis has appeared in the odd film and other Saint Mel Blatt was seen photocopying her rear in a recent advert, the Appletons have been quietly working on an album and reshaping their image.

On first listen, it seems that the sisters have swapped their neatly-pressed combat trousers of their All Saints days for faded rock chick denim jackets.

Has Liam Gallagher influenced the change in direction?

The pair have made the startling discovery of the electric guitar, which sultrily grinds underneath the sensual opening vocals of Fantasy.

And that is not the end of this rockier sound, as the guitar throbs in the build-up to an infectious chorus with a feel-good, singalong quality and refuses to go in one ear and out of the other.

But Nicole's other half Liam Gallagher has not moulded the girls into Oasis clones - Fantasy is very much a pure pop song, in spite of the startling presence of those growling guitars.

Appleton have definitely brought some All Saints musical baggage with them.

Interludes of the former band's cool, urban funk are lurking in there, from scratchy twiddles of instrumentation to spoken, girlish vocals reminiscent of the band's first chart-topper Never Ever from 1997.

The Appletons are not about to trade in their history with a great girl band, but their debut offering as a duo is just different enough to create a stir.

Fantasy is a feisty pop tune which should strike success for the sisterly duo - and make their break from the music business all the more worthwhile.

Fantasy is released on 2 September on Polydor records.