Tees-side trio Dartz specialise in angular music and quirky lyrics delivered with a highly regional accent, similar in style to The Futureheads or Maximo Park and paying a homage to the likes of Gang Of Four and XTC.

Hot on the heels of debut album “This Is My Ship” (reviewed elsewhere in these pages) comes second single, the double A-side  “Fantastic Apparatus/Cold Holidays” backed with a couple of non-album tracks “Latin And Greek” and “Viva La Republica”.

This EP kicks off with two of the more up-tempo moments from “This Is My Ship”  of which, my favourite is “Cold Holidays” with chiming guitar intro, a call and response chorus and constantly changing  bass line really sticking in the brain. That's not to dismiss “Fantastic Apparatus” which is all insistent guitar and sinuous bass weaving seamlessly from mid-tempo verses down to a slower bridge section and really shows excellent use of William and Philips combined vocals in the outro.

The bass is to the fore again in “Latin And Greek” this time starting with a riff Peter Hook would be proud of and the inventive use of combined vocals over the whole band sometimes making way to a sparser vocal and choppy guitar really adds interest and shows that the band are working hard to keep things as fresh as possible and not relying on any formulaic song structures to get by.

“Viva La Republica” is, in my humble opinion, the weakest track here. The various parts of the song not really gelling for me, mainly the riff at the end of the verse just doesn't flow and it spoils the tempo and dynamic built up through the verse but this is the only downside and Dartz continue to be the high watermark for British indie rock so far this year.

Let us know your views on 'Fantastic Apparatus'

Track Listing

Fantastic Apparatus
Cold Holidays
Latin And Greek
Viva La Republica

Line Up

William Anderson – Bass/Vocals
Henry Carden – Guitar
Philip Maughan – Drums/Vocals