It’s safe to say that The Auteurs completely passed me by when they were a going concern. Head honcho Luke Haines’ ability to coin a noticeable album title or two managed to catch my eye with Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry but it wasn’t until 2011s 9½ Psychedelic Meditations On British Wrestling Of The 1970s And Early '80s that I took the plunge and gave the man a listen. Definitely one of my better music-related decisions of recent years.

With Adventures In Dementia Haines crams such elements of the British experience as Skinner & Baddiel, singing Jerusalem at the rugby, caravan holidays and Mark E. Smith into six tracks that are a joy to listen to again and again. His loving chronicles of nostalgia for a myriad examples of UK culture from the last 40+ years, albeit it's doubtful he actually misses football violence, bring to mind the works of Iain Sinclair (a link I may have made previously).

The country punk of opening track 'Caravan Man' tools along at a pace no caravan has ever safely been pulled at and you can imagine the protagonists of Sightseers happily having it on repeat as they drive around on their killing spree. With a total running time of only around 15 minutes this is a perfectly formed example of the EP format. Where many acts would have one main song and fill the space out with pointless remixes of the same or equally pointless cover versions Haines has crafted a gem that hopefully heralds the delivery of a new full length work later in the year.     

Adventures In Dementia is available from amazon.

If the title track here isn't a stone modern shoegaze classic then I don't know what is. Straight in with the clear, high-register guitar phrase you know is going to wind its way in and out of the length of the tune, those laidback vocals they do so well and the requisite level of distortion on the rest of the instruments. Great stuff.

'Campus' then speeds things up nicely in the foreground, with a kind of Stereolab undertone going on as well. This release shows off a growth in the band's confidence & abilities which is great to behold and heartening for what they might soon produce in terms of their next full-length release.

'Controller' takes things back to a dreamier and chilled place before final track 'No Drones' rounds things out in punchy, vibrant style.

As a bitesize collection of offerings the Sunne EP ranks up there with the pre-Nowhere works Ride released back when indie music was unaware of the enjoyment to be had from shoegaze. Cheatahs are coming on in leaps and bounds.

Sunne is available from amazon & iTunes.