Friday 24/03/06 Clearlake, Broken Sleep @ The Barfly, Cardiff

It takes a few mumbles of in between song banter from South Walian five-piece Broken Sleep, before you can be sure they’re not secretly from the other side of the bridge. With songs awash with Massive Attack-style moodiness, Tricky esque paranoia and a bit of Portishead aping misery thrown in for good measure, Broken Sleep might as well bumble on stage swigging cider, such is their apparent adoration for anything Bristolian.

Crass South Westerly stereotypes aside, Broken Sleep deliver a heart on the sleeves, assured performance. ‘Splinter’, being the one exception to their self-imposed cup-half-empty worldview, singer David Hill’s agile voice weaves in between Alex Rees' minor key melodies and Hannah Davey’s steady, rumbling beat. It recalls the euphoria of Screamadelica in its uncompromising call to arms.

The muscular rhythms of ‘The Reeve’ finds Hill “down on his knees”, ‘Rising Tide’ recalls Mercury Rev’s trippier moments, but it’s ‘Downstream’ which really startles. It’s plunging atmospherics giving way to occasional bursts of echoey reverb and Hill’s intense vocal delivery. Perhaps short on stage presence, Broken Sleep never really get out of third gear – “play a fast one” – one impatient punter in a Ramones t-shirt shouts toward the end. But if brooding and foreboding is your bag, the quintet are worth investigating.