Flux Velociraptor – Velociraptor Attractor EP

If what you're looking for in your new favourite instrumental rock band is a good hand-off between build-up and energy, Linlithgow three-piece Flux Velociraptor are for you. They can bring the monster riffage without doubt, as you can hear for yourself on EP opener Evolutionists and its immediate neighbour Matter / Antimatter Collision. But they can also do the kind of skewed keyboard straight out of a 70s horror film, colliding with those complicated drum patterns we've all come to expect (and, of course, the monster riffage), that you'll likely catch soundtracking some low budget Rafe Spall-starring gorefest any time soon, in the form of Billy Everyteen.

A lot of the credit for their crunchy punching sound has to lay at the door of Gary Clinton who looks after guitar and synths (although full credit for the able support provided by Kenny McCabe on drums and Gary Pycroft on bass), and there are definitely parts of Velociraptor Attractor that function as a showcase for what Clinton can do. This is most evident on They Do Move in Herds which has some ferocious noise twinned with a kind of high-pitched whine that recalls Sabbath-era Ozzy – no mean feat for a vocal-less band.

Tracks like Written by Bono and the Edge show off a keen wit, whilst at the same time veering nicely between that build-up and energy we talked about. And then they finish out, as you'd expect, with their longest track, How to be a Retronaut – which does what all EP-closing tracks should do: leave you wanting more.

Listen to: Billy Everyteen, Written by Bono and the Edge, How to be a Retronaut