Well, call me old fashioned, but I can name at least ten different ways in which I would like to spend my Thursday evening that don’t involve paying four quid for a pint in a less than salubrious area of Central Manchester on a freezing cold November night. Praise the heavens then for Brakes. Over the past few years, Brakes have been feted as many things by the music press, mainly due to their love of making songs whose average length is around 60 seconds. However, there is one thing which they most undeniably are. Damn good. Sardonically cool and with a look about them which intimates that they are not the kind of band to take any prisoners, they are adept at producing music which as short, sharp and frenetic as it is quirky. And in the midst of an evening where there are a few too many trumped up egos taking up the standing room, a portion of well directed ire is just what the doctor ordered. Tonight we are treated to a few choice cuts off their new album, The Beatific Visions, which, although they sound meatier and more polished than the material off their debut, are still filled with the kind of anger which can light up a room with a single chord. By the time they launch into the superb All Night Disco Party, it doesn’t sound so much as a recommendation as more of a command. And with a nationwide tour beckoning in December, it would be very foolish to not expect them to light up dance floors across the country this winter. | 
