As cities in the UK go, Bristol is one of the wealthiest and most important but musically it is at best misunderstood and more often totally ignored. To those of you who have heard of the place it probably conjures up laid back images of the holy trinity of Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. Some might be able to mention Smith & Mighty or even go back to the days of the Bristol Wild Bunch but as a fixture on the rock scene you'd need to delve a little deeper.

The Experimental Pop Band draw from a different spiritual tradition of off-kilter eclectic Bristol post-punk stretching back through the spoken-word indie of The Blue Aeroplanes and the funk-rock of Pigbag to possibly the greatest Bristol band, The Pop Group, whose classic song "We Are All Prostitutes" is more relevant now than ever. Which is not to say that they sound like their predecessors, not the way that The Stands sound like Shack or that Oasis sound like The Stone Roses anyway. They are simply keen social observers who have absorbed the atmosphere of Bristol and to prove it they've made a semi-concept album about it which acts as a bittersweet love/hate letter to their home city. "Tarmac And Flames" captures the soul of the town in grainy Polaroid colour from the bohemian artists' hangouts of Clifton and the concrete retail desperation of Broadmead to the council-estate hopelessness of Southmead and the multi-racial melting pot of St. Paul's.

Sometimes it's deceptively cheerful as on the poppy "Weekend" and the Dylanesque "Older Now" and sometimes it's outright depressing as on the spoken word "Crow Ventura". The disco bounce of "Can't Stand It" and the icy Kraut-pop of "Gothenburg" add to the fun but, except on the arty sci-fi electro of "Mir", they never sound as pretentious as the "experimental" part of their name suggests they might. The music is as diverse as the city from which they come but the album is unified by a sense of inventiveness, of never being satisfied with anything until it's been kicked and beaten into unexpected shapes. You won't find this on sale at tourist information bureaus but it's an intriguing audio guidebook to an under-appreciated city. -Ian Martin, Feb.24.04

Tarmac And Flames