CD OF THE WEEK

SECRET MACHINES Ten Silver Drops Reprise ****

Back in 2004, three Texan youths who had relocated to New York released an album called Now Here Is Nowhere. Wholly out of synch with everything else that was happening around them at that time, the album was a sabre-rattling prog-rock belter, with guitars and drums swapping riffs like they were going out of fashion. Surprisingly enough, Secret Machines did not become the new Coldplay, but word of mouth ensured anyone requiring extra-terrestrial rock'n'roll decked out in psychedelic threads found their way to the album.

Cut from similar cloth as its predecessor, Ten Silver Drops possesses the same wild exuberance and outlandish sonic fury. It also has a sense of control, for which you can probably thank well-travelled producer Alan Moulder. Where once there were only mad-for-it, untutored stomps, now there are contrasting melodies and spaces for vocalist Brandon Curtis to make his own. As a result, there's much to admire in the layers that populate All at Once, and in the lovelorn, paranoid stoner wails on Alone, Jealous and Stoned. But it's when the Machines flip their wigs that they really deliver the knockout punches, and the drums on the gritty, sleazy Daddy's in the Doldrums can probably be heard a mile away. www.thesecretmachines.com

Jim Carroll