Music review: Youthmovies - Good Nature

An unusual band, Youthmovies specialise in what can only be described as indie/prog. The Oxford five-piece sound like a cross between Tool and the Arctic Monkeys, or perhaps the offspring of Battles and Babyshambles with added trumpets.

Whether these guys have a niche in the market remains to be seen, but Good Nature is a refreshingly innovative and bloody-minded record that frequently surprises, especially when they really cut loose.

Check out the Krautrock jam of track “SoandSo & SoandSo” or “If You’d Seen a Battlefield”, with its terrifying trumpets and berserk wall of noise guitars that bring to mind The Mars Volta. Youthmovies are also just as comfortable with straight-up indie crowd-pleasers, evident on current single “The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor”.

Occasionally they lose their way – as evident on the swampy “Shh! You’ll Wake It – and they might want to rethink their song titles in the future. Youthmovies may run the risk of falling between stools, but they have made an auspicious debut.

• Good Nature is out NOW