Just about anything described as progressive deserves a bit of a kick, if you ask me, and Trans am manage to take the piss but don’t come out sounding like a novelty act. It’s clear that they love the source material, for a start - a couple of the tracks on here sound like direct homage to Neu’s ‘halloGallo’. Yes, there are a lot of knowing winks but it’s sincere at the same time. Check ‘4738 Regrets’ which is genuinely beautiful without any pretence or self consciousness. Simple repetitive synths and guitar parts slowly building, moving and flowing like they did before the cocaine really kicked in. It’s difficult to describe, but if you remember early nineties tech / hippy types The Grid and their curious introduction of slide guitars, accordions and the like, you’ve not got a bad reference point. There are also some songs on here (which I think is a bit of a departure, but to be honest I didn’t listen to the lyrics much), and a fair bit of guitar thrashing in between the more pastoral stuff. It stops the whole thing from descending too much into homage and / or parody, and the un-American sounding ‘Tesco vs. Sainsbury’s’ is a magnificent growling rockist stomper. Trans Am sound like they should be an interesting live band, like Hawkwind taken apart and reassembled into entirely separate pieces. Postmodern could probably get a quick mention as well as Post Rock, but I suppose everything’s postmodern these days.

My ears are fucked, unfortunately, but as usual the crisp digital production manages to defeat some of the more out there moments. I’m trying not to be a luddite, but it would be nice if some internet zealot started a campaign to bring back battered analogue synths and valve amps. For a band so musically and stylistically rooted in the seventies (not in a negative sense) the digital sound really does make a difference. It makes the whole thing sound less warm and way too clinical. Maybe downloading the MP3’s from Emusic didn’t help.

Contrary to everything said, this isn’t a particularly big or clever album. If I’m honest I can’t see it staying near the top of anyone’s playlist forever, but it‘s well worth having. They don’t have the invective and intellectual meanderings of The Fall or the sheer verve of Faust but then again who does? But if you like all that experimental German stuff and anything described as Post rock or art rock this could be right up your street. The best way I can describe this is that they sound like the ideal support band for the mighty Sparks. They won’t steal the limelight, but their hearts are in the right place and they certainly make a good enough racket. And they’re bugger all like Coldplay, which is a bonus.