We don't often go to gigs since it means being in a room with other people and having to endure the hopeless clattering of support bands. But we made an exception to go and see Stricken City because we think they might be our new favourite band. One of them, anyway.

What we like about Stricken City is the way songs like, debut single, 'Tak o Tak' and forthcoming single 'Lost Art' sound like they were grown, rather than written; all shimmering, chiming waves of guitar against staccato, high basslines, loping rhythms and disarmingly melodic one-finger keyboards. The sort of thing that gets music journalists diving for the thesaurus.

But what we love about Stricken City are the Pauline Black meets Clare Grogan howls of limby vocalist Rebekah Raa (she strikes us as the kind of girl who says "Raa!" quite a lot). It's one of those special and rare voices that's sexy, innocent, confident and joyous all at once. Even when she's bantering nonsense between songs, she has it.

All the other things we were going to say about them (reminding us of the great, and largely forgotten band Life Without Buildings, or how 'Tak o Tak' would have seen them near the top of this year's Festive 50, were John Peel still with us) have already been said by other writers and quoted on the band's website. So instead we'll let you look and listen for yourselves. Enjoy...


Get a free download and buy stuff (including an amazing t-shirt with a bird on it) at: www.strickencity.com/