AC ACOUSTICS I Messiah, Am Jailer (Elemental)

AC Acoustics are, at a guess, a two guitar/bass/drums-type quartet, which means that this three track single must face immediate comparison with every other troupe of low-of-fi post-grunge string pluckers to have made waves on this side of the Atlantic, from the likes of the mighty Pavement downwards. So...the title track, in which Paul Campion drawls stuff like "I know a place where the water is safe" (without ever letting on where it actually is) and "High Divers" are pleasant enough, Pavement b-side fodder (well, they would be if they weren’t so obviously aware of concepts like ‘melody’ and ‘harmony’), while "Violent Peep" is a bit loud/quiet/loud (or possibly quiet/loud/quiet) in a Seattle sort of way, which ain’t going to set anybody’s world alight this close to the millennium. Still, keep tabs on this lot - a band with a name as groovy as theirs should never be written off.