Stricken City – Tak O Tak
In those innocent days before Pro Tools, click tracks and laptop recordings, the eighties produced a generation of studenty bands with a simple DIY ethic and only rudimentary musical skills who strummed away on effect-free jangly guitars and a simple hi-hat and snare rhythm. Stricken City are a splendid throwback to more innocent times where enthusiasm and the joy of being in a band counted for everything. Thankfully they also have some jolly tunes to back it up.

Formed in the Midlands and now based in London, the quartet is fronted by the jittery, just-got-out-of-bed-haired goddess Rebekah Raa who seems to have a thing for Jim Kerr’s meaningless hand gestures and feather headgear redolent of an Elton John dress outfit.

Tak O Tak combines the yearning simplicity of The Sundays, particularly in the vocal phrasing of singer Rebekah Raa - although you will be hard-pushed to work out what on earth she is on about with barely decipherable lyrics. There are touches of the Sugarcubes with Raa’s Bjorkish hiccups and the band’s C86-friendly indie guitar pop is tickled with vintage synth. Other tracks reveal some slowburn dynamics and Poscard-style pop nuggets.

Tak O Tak is Stricken City's debut single, released on July 28.