Vatican DC: 4 Track EP

One two three four – dum che dum che dum che dum de che. Vatican DC’s '4 Track EP' is a great big sweaty man’s fist full of late 70s punk.

'Smiling Dogs' takes the riff from Siouxsie & The Banshees 'Love In A Void' and beats it to death with a hammer alongside a shouty, better-intention-than-execution rant about the darker sides of London.

Nothing really changes on groupie wank fantasy 'Pink Hotel'(the title being an appalling extended metaphor about said woman’s genitals).

The problem is that while the music is flick-knife sharp and economically noisy, it doesn’t raise itself above pastiche. Nor does singer Irish Steve sound especially convinced of himself as a hard-nosed punk prophet, a fact not helped by the vocals being too loud in the mix.

Probably not the future of music then.