World Atlas / Brilliant Mind / Cattle & Cane – The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle.

Given that the Cumberland Arms is such a small venue, the fact that the elephant in the room escapes notice for the first half of World Atlas’ set is a remarkable thing. You see World Atlas sound like Belle & Sebastian. Not a bit like them, exactly like them and that, quite naturally raises some difficult questions that the band will need to have answers for. How far a band should take an influence is a difficult line to tread.

Brian Groux manages to nail the early Belle and Sebastian sound both vocally, melodically and even in the construction of his songs, their rise and fall matching those found on If You’re Feeling Sinister with the precision of a master forger. The similarity of sound has already sparked a flurry of discussion on internet discussion boards and it doesn’t go down well with everybody here tonight as sarcastic calls from the audience for B&S classics Fox In The Snow and Boy With The Arab Strap cause Groux to wince, and finally drag that elephant out from the shadows. But let’s cut Groux and his band some slack. The EP they are promoting tonight is their first, so there’s plenty of time for them to grow and find their feet musically; they have grown up on a different continent to Belle & Sebastian and a quick skim through their MySpace page reveals a clear obsession with mid to late 80s British jangle-pop, be that the original bands or revivalists like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Most importantly however, given their ability to nail that sound, they could easily have opted to form a B&S tribute band but they didn’t. God knows we don’t need any more tribute bands in the world, so applaud them for at least writing their own songs, give them time and space to develop their sound and in the meantime, let’s not forget how great that sound actually is. World Atlas write great pop songs and ultimately, that should be enough.

Brilliant Mind fit neatly into the rehabilitation of C86 jangly indie pop movement with a handful of sparking guitar riffs, lyrics which are lovelorn but not drippy and a front man who has clearly been putting in the hours on YouTube watching early Smiths performances.

Cattle & Cane will not be opening shows for much longer. Their reputation is spreading as quickly as the contents of a damaged canister of deadly microbes in a 1960s B-Movie, and in true epidemic fashion, it’s going to be very difficult to avoid them in the near future.  The only danger they face are the circling sharks of the music industry who may well see them as the next Mumford & Sons and try to manipulate them in that direction. This mustn’t be allowed to happen. Cattle & Cane have the potential to be the band Mumford & Sons could have been if they’d had more than one song and ten different ways of singing it.

World Atlas are here.

Brilliant Mind are here.

Cattle & Cane are here.