Sometimes you take your eye off the ball. Well, I do pretty often. There was a time when nothing’d get past me. Happy days. Still. Imagine the bands that you’d love if only you heard them? It’s not just the internet that’s done for us, it’s always been the case. Too many bands, not enough ears. Time was this is the sort of stuff that’d keep me awake at night. These days I sleep like logs.

The predominantly Cardiff-based Among Brothers are one such band who have been tinkering around while I’ve been looking in the other direction. The six-piece dream pop outfit, or chamber pop as cleverer people than me are calling it, are bonkers. Hatstand-shaped bonkers and delightfully so.

Theirs is the soundtrack to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Swipes and swirls, bleeps and bleats, stabs and strums, the vocals have been described as ‘Gang harmonies’ which is a phrase so delightful you know exactly what it means. If you’re expecting verse chorus stuff, expect again. It’s the sort of stuff that makes you hold your breath so when it ends you can’t help let out a big sigh. The new single, the double A-sided ‘I Am Certain’/'I Do Not Believe’ is heading your way on 19 November through Too Pure Singles Club, but we want an album, an album of this stuff would make us very happy.

So what made us look in the right direction this time? Too Pure. Loved Too Pure from the moment it shoved PJ Harvey in our general direction (that two-disc limited edition vinyl version of ‘Dry’ is treasure round ours). Just look at the acts that passed through the label will you – Billy Mahonie, Bows, Electrelane, Hefner, Laika, Long Fin Killie, Mouse on Mars, Murry the Hump, Seely, Stereolab, Th’ Faith Healers, Blooming heck… who are not a band, just an exclamation of quality.

What I didn’t know, obviously, way too busy looking the other way as per usual, was Too Pure shut their doors in 2008, re-emerging as a singles club in 2009. The club clearly picked up where the label left off and has had a very decent hit rate, in indie terms, serving up singles by the likes of such excellently names artists as Tape the Radio, Bear Hands, The Crookes, Jeff The Brotherhood, Esben & The Witch and Pulled Apart By Horses.

And now there’s this lot. If we were betting folk, which we’re not, nope, we’d have money on Among Brothers making a lot people very excited.

More hear…
- Soundcloud, lots of excellentness to listen to here. In particualr check out ‘Keep’ and the lush 7-minute romp of ‘Great Famine Family’…
- Bandcamp…
- Listen to/buy their summer ‘Keep’ single on cassette. Yes, on cassette.
- Website. Hurrah.