Cayto Your Atoms Are Laughing

Growing up a mere fifty miles south of Hadrian's Wall, I never thought I'd hear myself saying this but thank heavens for the Scottish.

On paper of course, English rock bands have a lot of their side. For starters there's the markedly larger population - that's got to help, right? Couple that with the huge number of record labels and the vast array of gig venues and the words "huge fucking advantage" seem to spring to mind. Scotland on the hand has shit weather, an internationally renowned (for the wrong reasons) football team, Irn Bru, the Loch Ness monster, and Tennants lager. Why then, do they consistently produce better bands? Someone please let me know - it's been bothering me for years now. Perhaps it stems from adversity, perhaps from an unhealthy obsession with disgusting orange-coloured beverages, I don't know. Either way, I'm intrigued.

Cayto hail from the fair city of Glasgow, and like a handful of Glaswegian bands before them (Mogwai immediately spring to mind), they harbour a passion for the arty brand of post-rock (see track number two Dirge (II) for genuinely satisfying proof of this). But as the band seem determined to prove throughout the seven tracks of Your Atoms are Laughing, they have many more strings to their collective bow. A Sin of Adult Swimming flirts nicely with electronica while the superb album closer God is Love spontaneously erupts into a noisy, guitar driven finale. Much heavier then any of the album's previous tracks, this offering stand outs for me as Cayto at their very best. More material in a similar vein certainly wouldn't have harmed Your Atoms are Laughing's chances of success but given the album's all-round appeal and charming eclecticism, it feels kinda rude complaining.

With a running time of just under thirty minutes, Your Atoms are Laughing is a short, sharp burst of enthusiasm - the sound of young band reluctant to be pigeon-holed and unwilling to stand in the same place twice. It's not without it flaws of course - continuity is a problem, and seven tracks is tight even by Scottish standards - but perhaps you should remember that this is merely a debut album, and one brimming with potential at that. Without a doubt, one to watch.