With a name like People Of Santiago, one could be forgiven for expecting the love-children of the Pixies guitarist with a collection of riffs to match. But these pesky kids want to lead us up the wrong path, because one-third of their name is where the Pixies similarities end.

Instead, People Of Santiago conjure up a hybrid of all your favourite bands - The Cure, Radiohead, Interpol and My Bloody Valentine - without ever really sounding like any of them. For example, the intro to 'FUNCL' bears a striking resemblance to that of 'Creep' _for all of about 20 seconds, before turning into an eclectic mix of hard-edged riffola and thought-provoking wordplay ("Rate your friends, then separate your friends from your enemies"_).

What really makes these recordings stand out from the crowd though are the clever sparks of interplay between guitarists Andrew Young and Steven Clark, sometimes reminiscent of Banks and Kessler, others rekindling the starched glories of Shields and Butcher. As for the songs themselves, 'Ingo Swann' has a distinct Ride-flavoured edge to it, partly fuelled by a cardially explosive bassline; 'FUNCL' we've already mentioned; 'Death Of Logic' being the most obvious choice for the first single thanks to it's titanic riff and even bigger chorus ("Not enough pain to stem the flow..."); and 'Time Means Everything', possibly the weakest track of the four, would still give any of those synth-dominated 80s-styled bands a run for their money.

As far as demos are concerned, Vessels is well above your average sounds like _[insert band name here]_ fare and would easily stand out as a single in its own right.