Soft Hearted Scientists

Any band who sing about caterpillars, the Brecon Beacons and monsters called Yongy Bongy Bo risk being so quirky they’d leave you reaching for a Misty’s Big Adventure CD for respite. Yes, the first album proper from these acoustic folk oddballs might suggest its makers bed down in a Glasto tepee every night, tucked in by a woodland pixie, but to dismiss Cardiff’s SHS as quirk over substance would be idiotic. Over Beta Band-ish acoustics and cloudy chants, electro-squiggles and instruments we couldn’t even begin to name jiggle and hop, all neon highlighting the campfire brilliance of SHS’s choruses. Yongy Bongy Who?

Jamie Fullerton

7 out of 10