Reviews

The problem affects local bands too. Type in "Elysium" into Myspace and you'll have to wait till the middle of the second page of thirteen to find the Gloucestershire-based act that reached number nine in 2007's Ten of the Best.

The Name Game

But you wouldn't expect this problem of a band with a name like Sundae Club. There's a certain glorious off-the-wall weirdness to this band name.

Sundae Club

And you certainly wouldn't imagine that, say, a German Trip Hop band, would come up with exactly the same name for their act. You would, of course, imagine wrong. Never mind.

Sundae Club - that is to say England's Green and Pleasant Sundae Club - are back in force following the success of their Technostalgia album and 2006 football themed double A side.

As ever, they are heavily armed with a collection of tracks that will blow you into a marvellous world of old Moogs, mellotrons and melodicas. And the sound is fantastic as ever.

Men at Work

The tracks that you will currently find available on Sundae Club's Myspace page are a collections of works in progress, re-mixes and brand new material. All of it is great.

Stand out track must be "All One Finger", which takes as its inspiration the sample of an over-enthused, and slightly cheesy Voice Over artist extolling the virtues of some un-named electronic keyboard/drum kit ("What a thrill to have a complete rhythm section at your command - with one finger!").

Beneath the excited tones, Sundae Club strut their stuff with an ever modulating melody which encompasses all styles of music from an American Hoe Down through to Calypso beats via the BBC Test Card music.

Few musicians could come up with such a concept if they tried. But with Sundae Club, you get the impression they're just doing what comes natural.

World Music

In a similar vein, the temporarily named "Period 4 Audio Recording" blends Oriental Pentatonic melodies with chilled out grooves and a mournful Celtic string sound, before segueing into pure funk straight out of a Blackspoitation movie, and then back into the more relaxed affair it came from.

It's a perfect track, simple in its complexity and complex in its simplicity.

Other songs to feature on this collection may sound more familiar to Sundae Club fans of old: there's an instrumental version of "When Beechleaves Are Falling", which plunges into a space aged Saxophone jazz solo sadly lacking from the original, and two remixes of "Angels in the Sky", originally featuring Sam Holmes on vocal duties.

Hark! The Herald Angels...Have Been Remixed

"Constant Raincheck" takes the instrumental backing of "Angels..." and plays it under the mutterings of a techno-boffin reciting various enigmatic codes and formulae.

Meanwhile "Angels Darkness Dub Mix" gives the original song a dirtier drums 'n' bass feel - something of a departure for this particular act.

Usually bands have to rely on the machinations of Pete Tong and Judge Jules to attend to remixes. Ever the experimentalists, Sundae Club have adopted a Do It Yourself approach to the whole concept and given us two for the price of one.

Hopefully it won't be long before we have a full blown successor to the Technostalgia album of four years ago.

In the meantime, this reviewer for one will be more than happy to glean whatever the band care to throw in his direction...but a new album would be nice.

Sundae Club (Mike Banks/RecordProduction.com)

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If you're involved in the Gloucestershire music scene and you would like Stephen to review your music, please feel free to get in touch. Either email gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk or send your album and a bit about yourself to:

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This article is an external contribution and expresses a personal opinion, not the views of the BBC