Roll up, roll up, and let this Newcastle band into your life. (Particularly if you like your alt-rock to have a louche, rather decadent feel about it.)

I’m listening to ‘Shadows from Lamented Light’ from CIRCUS’s fabulous debut album ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ and I’m getting all sorts of flavours, from a vocal that hits somewhere between Brett Anderson (Suede) and Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks), and a sound that is glam-flecked but also taking in the widescreen stadium rock of Manic Street Preachers. It’s also a track that isn’t afraid to zig-zag off in an unexpected new direction. And ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ is indicative of what the band are all about, which is to give indie-alt-rock an exciting new spin. I mentioned Suede above, and that feels like a good reference point for the band, because CIRCUS also ooze that “we’re all in the gutter but looking at the stars” glamour that early Suede possessed. The album is actually a concept album of sorts—charting humanity’s slide into nuclear annihilation—but, hey, if we’re all going to go down, then this release is the perfect soundtrack. DP

Seek: Instagram: @circusbanduk