On ‘Persistent Malaise’, the Brighton three-piece showed such adeptness and musical maturity that its hard to think that their follow up, recorded at London’s Sound Savers, will be anything other than another step forward. At a time when prolific, rapid fire releases seem to be the order of the day, Cold Pumas careful, considered approach is refreshing. The band seemed to come fully formed when they released their debut, apparently playing together for a year, honing their sound before playing to an audience. And it shows in their recorded output. Only a band that had jammed together tirelessly would know how far they could take a repeated guitar line before a subtle shift in tempo or the layering of melodic counterpoint was needed.
‘Fog Cutter’ and ‘Sherry Island’ are lessons in how well this can work in the right hands, the former’s resemblance to ‘Disorder’ garnering favourable comparisons to the motorik moodiness of Joy Division without any sense that this might be overstating the bands case. They really are that good. ‘Puce Movement‘ and ‘Vanishing Point‘ lean even further towards the post-punk while ‘Rayon Girls‘ lilting alt doo-wop lifts the the latter half of the album with a surprisingly tender pop gem. Having released an eleven track album of singles and b-sides of which the twitchy rave-up, ‘Jela’ is a particular highlight, the band show no shortage of ideas as to where to take their sound.
The Fat Angel Sings 