Field Music

CD CHOICE: Plumb Memphasis Industries****

How do you describe a band like Field Music? “Indie rock” is too dismissive of the Sunderland troupe’s imaginative guitar- based stylings, yet “art rock” makes them sound like poseurs.

Brothers David and Peter Brewis make the sort of music that could be deemed comparable to two of their Mackem counterparts: Maximo Park and The Futureheads. But Field Music’s sound is more cerebral than the former, not quite as chart-friendly as the latter.

The quartet have always been a band with big ambitions, as exhibited by their last album, Measure, a set of 20 songs spread over two discs. While hugely enjoyable, its sprawling nature proved excessive for all but über-enthusiasts.

Plumbrefines Field Music's trademarks – unusual timings, zig-zagging riffs, offbeat melodies and beats that correspond to a faulty pacemaker – into a comparably concise 35 minutes. More importantly, it distils those elements into vibrant, progressive songs that will seduce you with their sophisticated orchestral beauty as easily as they'll spur you on to shake a leg.

Start the Day Rightis incontestably mid-1970s Paul McCartney in tone, a song akin to an agit-pop version of Live and Let Diewithout the musical histrionics. A New Townis one of several tracks led by an irresistibly groovy bassline, while a series of comparatively serious tunes ( Who'll Pay the Bills?and succinct scene-setter So Long Then) are offset by the glorious technicolour vibrance and falsetto jangle of Is This the Picture?.

Let's face it: if you're already vehemently opposed to Field Music's off-the-grid approach to songwriting, Plumbwon't change your mind. For music to get the synapses firing and the fingers snapping, though, this is a celebration of what a guitar band with imagination, individualism and some damned funky jams can really achieve. field-music. co.uk

Download tracks: (I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing, Is This the Picture?, A New Town