Lab Coast make a curious kind of racket. Opening with the sound of someone hawking the lining of their throat and nose into their mouth and ejecting it noisily, Wilding is a collection of songs which sound like they were recorded in a hurry, fizzing with distortion and having a kind of off-the-cuff, ramshackle vibe about them.  Frequently, they threaten to collapse in on themselves. Indeed Walking Through The Park does just that, its taut guitars grinding rapidly and prematurely to a halt just a minute and a half into the song. It’s as if they suddenly had an idea for an even better song and couldn’t wait to get started with it. Yet, this short album – the eleven songs will take up only twenty one minutes of your time – is totally irresistible because through the chaos and the noise come some of the sharpest melodies you’ll ever hear.

The whole thing is very reminiscent of a fistful of great bands (early Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr, even The Pastels)  in its effervescent energy; this is a band who sound like they just love playing together, while managing to find, seemingly by happy coincidence, that something extra – pin-sharp melody – in their music.

Incidentally, anyone possessed of the idea that buying the recent Oasis greatest hits album would be a good idea should invest three minutes and seven seconds in closing track I Saw You. You’ll be quickly and energetically disabused of that notion if you do so.

Lab Coast’s MySpace is here.