EP 1

SSM follow up their debut, eponymous, full-length album with this six-song mini-set, cleverly titled EP-1, and yet again defy anyone to describe their sound. The rollicking "Fiction Rock + Roll" and the slamming "Country City" posits them on the punk side of garage rock, which is where most exasperated critics tend to lump them. "Ha, that's what you think," the band cry triumphantly, slinging into "You'll Be Glad You Did," a synth pop-goes-pop-punk ditty that could have been written by Vince Clarke, or the Ramones for that matter. To further muddy the waters the EP suddenly falls straight into space rock territory. The remix of the album track "Put Me In" has new wave pretensions, too, but a decidedly funky flare, and even a hint of proto industrial fuzz and drone. But the trio aren't done yet. "Bell Isle Daze," is way too slow for garage, but you can hear its antecedents within regardless, along with fabulous psychedelic organ and wah-wah guitar. Simultaneously laid-back and insistent, thanks to the spacey atmosphere and a new wave drum machine beat, here SSM are, perhaps, at their genre-bending best. Until they take "Daze" into "Dub" on the final track. Onscreen it just looks goofy, while the lyrics are decidedly loopy, but on disc it's brilliant, absolutely inspired, in fact, and a ton of fun besides.