Foals: 'Balloons'

While Foals may have to go down in music history as having the least interesting band name since Shed Seven, this hasn't stopped them causing a music industry stir and being tipped for "big things" in 2008. They wear their guitar straps high, have some 'interesting' haircuts and make bludgeoning dance-punk that shakes, rattles and rolls with a futuristic electro-buzz , all held in shape by an undercurrent of classic indie-rock.

There's usually nothing worse than hearing a band that have an industry "buzz" about them. It's usually the result of some hyperactive PR team, and normally means there'll be a lot of bleeping robotics or a gaggle of Hoxton scenesters posing around three minutes of sonic waffle. Foals, however, just about merit the frothing hype that's greeted their arrival. They come across like Hot Chip trying to sound really hard or The Rapture if they'd ditched their poppier moments for some leftfield math rock. 'Balloons' relentless, tetchy and twitchy, jerky rock will take a few spins to get under your skin, but it's impossible to shift thereafter. Foals - rubbish name, promising band.