I can’t lie, its always a bit of a thrill when a band gets in touch directly rather than through their PR, and even if sometimes the music might be a bit meh, or not really my cup of tea, such moments are always erased when you hit Play and, Lo, there’s summat a bit nice.

So, All This Noise, aka James and Alan Noise, is a little two-some resulting from, what I assume, was frustration of playing session on others so-so music. Not a bad place to start and I think that Alan Noise takes care of producer, engineer, programmer and bass player duties with James Noise delivering the guitar and vocals.

With a bit of 80’s era electro, 90’s indie and some contemporary bleeps and whistles their music so far seems to rather cunningly span the decades. It brings to mind a number of things, like a twang of early Depeche Mode here and a glimpse of The The there; however this is no mere pastiche or a smashing together of a few styles.

It is a rather beautifully produced concoction (well the two tracks so far available at any rate), with some fine guitar and excellent vocals to the fore, deftly underpinned by the electronica and bass work. The musical ability and experience shine through as does the maturity to know that sometimes you must let tracks have the time to build and not just to go straight for the jugular. Short and sharp can be fine but surely we have the time and inclination to let things grow and develop, its something I appreciate personally, and in my view its been nicely judged on these two tracks.

Seven Billion Like You seems set for release as a single at the end of January, I believe an accompanying video might be in production as well. The Return is also available on their Soundcloud page and I think is my favourite of the two tracks. Writing and recording for more stuff to form an album is also muted though no release date is, perhaps understandably, mentioned. Dear Heart Tom Robinson saw fit to lead off his December Mixtape with a cut down version of Seven Billion… so someone is listening up its good to note.

A couple of plays find these, immediately enticing, tracks dig under your skin and get their hooks in. I’ve been buzzing them for a day or so now and have come to love these genre-defying, epoch-leaping little rascals. Messrs James and Alan Noise are onto something here and I for one am looking forward to a few more tracks, don’t leave it too long chaps!