Describing themselves as 'electronic, repetitive, psychedelic guitar music...with brains', Cambridge band The Resistance have been hailed by some as 'the most exciting new band to come out of the city in aeons', and certainly, with their mix of guitars and various digital and analogue electronics, the band's urgent walls of sound create an exhilarating and intelligent soundscape for those willing to listen.
Opener, '(Crossing The Road) With Your Eyes Closed', is a track that needs to be played loud, enabling you to abandon yourself and be enveloped by its breathless, all-engulfing electro-onslaught, as repetitive bass and a growing crescendo of guitars, electronics and drums set your pulse racing.
But 'Sleeping' takes the form of a more chilled-out dance track, boasting big electronic beats and swirling cosmic atmospherics, before nightmarishly unsettling distorted fuzz interrupts the calm. 'Polar', once again, captures an equally haunting sensation with its smashing cymbals, and sounds that slice and shimmer simultaneously alongside eerie atmospherics.
The Resistance certainly succeed in creating captivating soundscapes; unlike some purely instrumental bands, there's no feeling that you're waiting for the vocals to kick in, rather the band manage to encapsulate a mood in each track that builds to tell its own story without words. Yet despite their attempts, you can't help that feel a studio recording is never going to recreate the tangible atmosphere of live performance that is obviously so vital to The Resistance's success. However, for fans of this type of artistic electronic music, or anyone with a little imagination, could easily find themselves lost in The Resistance's intelligently crafted soundscapes.

Christine Miller