Album: Clor <!-- none onestar twostar threestar fourstar fivestar -->

Their press release describes Clor as "a futuristic pop band of the colour nobody makes anymore". Of course, "futuristic" is hard to sustain in an age when virtually all musical production draws brazenly from previous eras, and Clor are no exception: it's just that the models they've chosen to emulate remain firmly out of fashion. The vocalist Barry Dobbin - who really should think about a new stage name - sings in a plaintive high-register warble somewhat like a cross between Perry Farrell and Jonathan Donahue, coming across like some alt.rock idiot savant on the pleasingly self-reliant "Gifted": "If I've got problems, I'll never share/ I'll work them out slowly/ You won't be there." His band, meanwhile, have developed a no less peculiar musical style, which, on tracks such as "Garden of Love" and "Making You All Mine", resembles an unholy garage/prog crossover. On the manic, jerky riffing of "Stuck in a Tight Spot" and "Love + Pain", the results are akin to Primus; elsewhere, the poppier cast of songs like "Good Stuff" and "Outlines" draws Clor closer to the wry, clever-dick pop of Scissor Sisters and, skipping back a generation, the sturdy, satiric automaton grooves of Devo. There's certainly a distinctive, individual appeal to this debut album, though whether the world is ready for it remains in doubt.