We Have Band
Album: Ternion
Label: Naive
Tracks: 10
Website: www.wehaveband.com

Let's cast our minds back a couple of years and recall the open arms reception afforded a bunch of synth-touting Mancs called Delphic - the new New Order we were told. Incredibly, they delivered. In spades. But whither Delphic now? The arrival of the equally trumpeted We Have Band might suggest some of Delphic's thunder has been stolen. Not so much the new New Order though, but possibly the new Magazine. With a bit of A Guy Called Gerald. And a little A Certain Ratio.

Or maybe they're just We Have Band.

Anyway, here's the deal - following the airbrushed gothic dance (bleak house?) of their self-titled debut, they have delivered this second set. Not so obviously indebted to the house music boom, it looks to the industrial soundscapes fashioned north of Birmingham in the wake of punk. Anyone looking for a familiar entry point though should try Visionary with its Hookie bassline and Barney vocals, but you'll find a deeper grab bag of influences here with the likes of Cabaret Voltaire, first generation Human League and OMD, even Vini Reilly, while Steel in the Groove and Tired of Running plug directly into the arms-aloft excitement of house, the opening Shift leans into folksy psychedelic territory.

Perhaps the band that springs most readily to mind here is Doves whose application of a dance sensibility to broader, rootsier musical influences has produced some of the most invigorating music of the last decade or so.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk