The idea of using post-punk for nefarious pop ends seems a little old-hat these days, but Reading’s Pete And The Pirates are fast becoming one of the sub-genre’s finest practitioners.

'Knots', then, is a fine example of their burgeoning brilliance, a whip-smart two-minute exercise in route-one anthemics, the kind of clutter-free clatter that might just have saved The Futureheads from the chop at 679 (and no disrespect to that undervalued outfit, whose third album we await with impatience). Its streamlined rush is propelled by a bottled-lightning riff reminiscent of Franz Ferdinand’s 'Michael', held back only in its failure to really go supernova as you feel it should.

Still, coming as it does off the heels of classic single 'Come On Feet', and backed with a B-side ('The Wrong Man') which sounds like nicking a car and driving it fifty yards before pranging it into a tree at pathetic speed, this bodes really well for the debut album, due early next year.

And at a moment where chart-aspirational indie is meeting with undreamed-of success, it’s undeniably sweet to encounter a populist sensibility being put to such constructive use.

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