Comets On Fire - Avatar

There's no time to wait - with a neo-psychedelic noise too urgent to hold back, 'Avatar' joins aptly-named Californian five-piece Comets On Fire already right into their Interstellar Overdrive to hell. The thundering riffage and swirling feedback are what good headphones were invented for, to feel every last drop of carnage and then, for the slower songs, every aching squeal of overdriven guitar and the rolling bass, almost funky. This is not funk, mind, nor wet-arsed balladry – Iggy Stooge is riding this comet, crashing through London streets in search of lost madcap Syd Barret, rest in peace. When previous album 'Blue Cathedral' landed from nowhere in 2004, it was a flaming great space-ball from the far-flung reaches of nothingness: but you've been warned about 'Avatar'. Do you get hurricanes in space? Aye, but it's bar-room-brawl time now, Syd, get the drinks in. [Ally Brown]