LORNA MARSH UEA LCR, Norwich

LORNA MARSH

> UEA LCR, Norwich

They may be one of the lesser known bands currently and unashamedly borrowing from the early Indie '80s but the Rakes last night showed they should be headed for a brighter spotlight.

The power evident on their debut album Capture/Release explodes into reality once they take the stage to a heaving crowd and launch straight into their tales of decently paid but dead-end jobs, casual sex and alcohol.

Comparisons with Joy Division are inevitable and admittedly this is familiar territory lyrically, but it sounds so fresh when combined with the band's hyperactive energy.

Then there is the wonderful wild card Binary Love, a tale of unrequited robot romance.

Radio-played single Retreat gets the necessary moshing reaction but it is the 22 Grand Job Strasbourg that provides the best frenetic few minutes of the night.

Main support act White Rose Movement, from Norfolk and rumoured to have once lived in a commune with Beth Orton in the north of the county, do the New New Romance thing to the hilt both in style and in substance.

But it never seemed too much when they have the kind of star quality that could see them put the county on the musical map at last. Tonight dark electropop is a breath of fresh air for the acoustic Love Dross that's dominated the charts of late.