The Messthetics get maximum points for a great name, but that's not all they have in their favour. Drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally are both former members of esteemed Washington DC punk band Fugazi, while guitarist Anthony Pirog is an excitingly experimental player who guested on saxophonist James Brandon Lewis’ 2017 classic No Filter.

On paper, the union of all four individuals is a cross-genre affair but the result speaks more of a musical affinities and personalities that gel above all else. The songs range from snap and crunch rock to langourous ballads, such as ‘Asthenia’ in which the lyricism of horn and electric strings comes into its own. Instrumental pop with a noisy, thrashy character has a rich lineage that includes anybody from Material to Acoustic Ladyland via Cuong Vu, and Defunkt, and The Messthetics-Brandon Lewis put their own spin on the history. When they branch out in the most unexpected directions, as in the Balkan gypsy funk of ‘That Thang’ they are hard to resist in a front room, or one also imagines, on a sweat-stained dance floor.