Texas Radio Band - Baccta' Crackin'

Texas Radio Band sound as if they're playing under water. The squelching, splashing and bubbling noises they produce could plausibly see them 10 leagues down entertaining a strange variety of aquatic animals bobbing jauntily around on the happy currents. One of them is even called Squids.

It's lucky for us, then, that they choose the city over the sea. It might be an insult to tag the Llansteffan (near Carmarthen) six-piece a Welsh Gomez, but they're Gomez minus the flab, disposing of the countless benign fillers stuffed around their one decent single.

Baccta' Crackin' is diverse, theres no doubt about that, morphing from pop to country to blues and back again with impressive ease.

Chwaraeon is a freshly picked tuft of grass roots pop, Rhan O Ni a platter of shimmering watery effects policed by shuffling beats and a vacant whirring guitar, like an aural Jacuzzi if you like, balming, softening and massaging the ears.

There the tempo stays for the exquisite Father's Only Son and Kilos, only for Andromeda to follow as a swift wake-up call. Baccta' Crackin' is all this, and more, without sounding directionless. Splendid.

Words: Greg Cochrane