New Music Monday: Amazing Baby

Photograph Cred: PR (guardian.co.uk)

As a natural cynic, the quickest way of ensuring I'll gloss over a new band is to hear them described as "the new ...". It generally results in a diluted imitation of said group carrying at best one lead single of any merit. So when I hear the excitement surrounding Amazing Baby centres around their similarity to fellow Brooklynites MGMT, and that they only formed after "Time To Pretend" started pervading our consciousness, my "unwarranted hype gauge" goes off the scale.

Thankfully, I cast aside such discursions because Amazing Baby offer considerably more than a stay as MGMT warm-up act. From the first introduction to their demo you can hear the confidence oozing out of every orifice. "Pump Yr Breaks" starts with a classic rock axe wielding guitar assault, before exploding into a rich wave of swirling sound. They're blessed with the absurdity of the Flaming Lips, the genre-bending ethos of Primal Screen and the sheer euphoria of the Polyphonic Spree. The latter comparison is especially relevant given they follow the same rotating band personnel policy of the Texan troop.

It's on repeated listening that their ambition and ideas really shine through and you appreciate the multiple layers and influences. My current favourite is the swaggering, psychedelic, prog-folk demo closer "Head Dress" but everything I've heard to date has been consistently excellent. One of the real bright hopes for next year.

"Pump Yr Brakes" is released in the UK on 10th November on Another Music Another Kitchen. You can download the "Infinite Fucking Cross EP" for free below:
http://www.theamazingbaby.com/download/ep.zip