Well, this year’s Man… or Astroman? comeback might have proved a bit of a damp squib (on record at least – I didn’t manage to catch them live), but fans of their particular oeuvre can at least wipe away a tear and console themselves with the knowledge that we’ve still got mobs like Los Pecadores, coming straight out of the land of exotic adventure that is 21st century Leeds with a nigh-on perfect reclamation of M… OAM?’s classic-era formula.

So yes: you will by now have clocked the goofy album title, the Mexican wrestler mask and the comic book aliens that adorn the cover. You probably could have guessed that carefully chosen dialogue samples from ‘Wild, Wild Planet’ and ‘Invasion of the Bee Girls’ are just around the corner, and that the drumming is amazing. You know whether you are in or out.

Personally, I love this kinda stuff, so I’m in like Flynn, and I’m happy to report that by and large Los Pecadores stick to the very punk-est end of Astroman’s stylistic spectrum. Certainly, they’re less nerdy and less sonically inventive than the past masters, and perhaps less melodically imaginative too…. but such deficiencies are more than for by sheer velocity. Maintaining a near hardcore pace throughout, ‘Escape From Uranus’ is a relentless 20-something minute punk-surf ripper than barely slows down long enough to catch a breath, let alone a wave. Guitar tone is wild as gtr, bass and drums clash and swerve with all the swashbuckling prowess this kinda music demands, and I’m happy to crown these guys a worthy replacement to London’s much missed (by me at least) One Fathom Down.

If you were feeling grumpy, you could note that their compositions tend to get a bit dreary when they push into cruise control territory on some of the longer tracks, and that the master volume on my CD copy is set inexplicably low, but the record as a whole is such a rush, you’d have to be bloody picky to take issue at such trifles. Definite gold medallists in the hotly contested British Instro/Surf Album Of The Year category, anyway.

Listen and buy via bandcamp.

Labels: best of 2013, Los Pecadores