If there's one thing that you have to give Skywave credit for, it's the fact that they're quite plain about who they are and what they do. You only have to glance at the psychedelic artwork of their latest album, the name of the band, and their terribly abstract website to tell exactly what sort of music you're going to hear about when you put this into your CD player.

A lot of comparisons have been made between Skywave and My Bloody Valentine, but with the exception of the opening track, "Tsunami", I don't think that's entirely an accurate description. Probably a better comparison would be to Joy Division or The Smiths, if only because Skywave's vocalist sounds a hell of a lot like Ian Curtis or Morrissey. If you don't believe me, check out Over and Over, and tell me that it doesn't remind you of those two.

The main criticism that seems to be levelled against this band is their lack of originality. In many ways, this is justified. It's quite easy to pick out the music that has inspired these guys, their songs are virtually a Frankenstein's Monster of well-known shoegaze and post-punk groups from the last twenty-five years. Enjoyment of this record is only possible if you can look past the whole "Hey, these guys sound sorta like Jesus and Mary Chain!", and just listen to the music on it's own terms.

On its own terms, this music is very agreeable. Tsunami sounds like its title suggests, a massive tidal wave of scratchy distorted guitar noise that crashes through anything in its path. Nothing Left To Say relies upon spacey guitars and a truckload of effects to create a mellow jam that's breathtaking on its scale alone. Fire, on the other hand, opens with a gently stuttering guitar, before a moody, dark synth noise kicks in in the background, giving the song a particularly dark ambience, like watching flames burn away in slow motion in the middle of the night.

Given it's rather shameless unoriginality, it's impossible to call Skywave visionaries or even a particularly good band. But what they are great at doing is stitching up other bands and genres into something else, and supplementing it with some great songwriting of their own. This is not a particularly imaginative album, but it is one that's executed with quite a bit of skill and style.