Campag Velocet – 'It’s Beyond Our Control' (Pointy Records) Released 19/07/04

It’s been years in the pipeline but Campag Velocet’s long-awaited follow-up to their little-known debut (1997’s 'Bon Chic Bon Genre') is worth the wait. On first listen it’s an eclectic mix of rock and funk which defies definition and wins you over with its cool grooves and punked-up soul. On a repeat performance, it seems as though the Southern four-piece may have created the impossible – the soundtrack to life.

Opening track 'Instinct-Tension' is an instant hit, with Mike Skinner meets Keith Flint vocals underscored by a Fun Lovin' Criminals-esque bassline. Further influences rear their heads in the form of 'Stranded by the Reebox' which gives a nod to Born Slippy with its repetitive beat and staccato vocals, and 'Metro Boulot Dodo', a commuter blues-inspired synth paradise with a suspiciously Kylie-esque bassline (think recent single 'Slow' and you’re not far off, despite the questionable comparison).

Highlights include new single 'Vindictive Disco', which utilises the omnipresent funk theme to great effect (even if it is a touch too long) and the aptly-named 'Sunset Strip Eclipse', an Ibiza smooth instrumental conjuring up images of sundown on the beach (perhaps with the FLCs grooving somewhere on the deck of a yacht, a la 'Loco')

All in all it’s a funkadelic rock/punk paradise, with throbbing synth basslines (the commuter blues-inspired 'Metro Boulot Dodo' being a prime example) and random bursts of rhyming slang vocals which fact fans might recognise as a nod to the nonsense language spoken in Kubrick’s 1971 masterpiece by which the band were so inspired. Not what you’d expect from a band inspired by violence, 'It’s Beyond Our Control' is a masterpiece in the making – call it a hunch, but we think you might just like it.