Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2012

Last year, promoter Creativeman (Summer Sonic etc.) relaunched its British Anthems showcase as Radars. The idea was to widen the remit—last spring’s inaugural event featured bands from Australia and Japan as well as the UK.

On the bill for the upcoming second edition of Radars are bands from… the UK. Nonetheless, they are some pretty intriguing groups.
Cardiff, Wales’ Islet may be the first post-internet act. They’ve got a minimal website and proselytize via a home-published paper fanzine rather than the standard MySpace/Facebook social networking platforms. Needless to say, this has added greatly to their mystique.

Formed from the remnants of The Victorian English Gentlemens Club, attack + defend and Them Squirrels, the group has at its core Emma and brothers John and Mark Thomas—all of them percussionists.

Without quitting their day jobs, Islet have on the strengths of three EPs and a formidable live show become quite the band to watch.
Videos such as “We Shall Visit” off the rather excellent Celebrate This Place show a tribal percussion-powered post-rock outfit informed as much by the artiness of Animal Collective or Dirty Projectors as the angular alt-rock of Deerhoof.

Joining Islets are S.C.U.M, a South London band whose stentorian vocalist Thomas Cohen brings to mind units like The Horrors, or earlier progenitors such as Nick Cave and Bauhaus. Named for feminist Valerie Solana’s book from 1967 called the SCUM Manifesto, their name stands for Society for Cutting Up Men. Not likely to endear them to the misogynists among us.

Joining them are young Manchester guitar bashers Airship and Japanese hopefuls White Ash.

Liquidroom, Jan 28 (listing).