Lisa Brown - What's That Sound
[High Voltage]

Despite a loyal local fan base, Lisa Brown remain one of Manchester's best kept secrets with their own brand of unashamedly '80s synth-pop disco.

New single 'What's That Sound' is the closest thing to a guided tour round the band's personal music collection; with a chorus Duran Duran would have killed for, and a beat that New Order will wish they'd written, the record's draped in effortless cool.

It's got a massive sound; polished, confident and glitzy, whilst maintaining an emotional, delicate edge thanks mostly to the achingly breathy, sexy vocal of front man Nev.

Double A-side, 'Anna' delves into another, later section of the band's record collection. A dreamy, Britpop influenced ballad, it's the kind of cute, foppish song that conjures up images of bespectacled indie boys sitting in dimmed bedrooms haplessly moping over the cool girl at school.

Contagious, uplifting guitar pop with an added dash of sensitivity and balls, it's a telling sign that while other young bands replicate each other or a limited, celebrated era of musical heritage, Lisa Brown delve through the past 25 years of pop music and combine their favourite elements. There's no pretence, just infectious dance floor fillers and sympathetic heartbreakers.

Despite causing a gentle storm within the industry with plenty of specialist national radio show air-play, Lisa Brown have yet break through to the mainstream. Annoyingly for them, and perhaps luckily for Manchester, it's undeniably their location that's forced them out of the picture so far, although with more national NME club nights and London gigs coming up in the New Year, make the most of these smaller gigs...