Bristol based Velcro Hooks first met in the back alley behind a youth hostel in Guatemala, surrounded by discarded mattresses, and soon bonded over guitars. ‘Severin’ The Mind’ is the first track from their forthcoming debut LP, and it’s a suitably raw and scuzzy affair for a band that met in such grubby circumstances. An urgent, pulsing drumbeat and lead singer Jenner Blank’s seething, punky vocals (he swaggers from Iggy to almost ‘Anarchy in the UK’ era Johnny Rotten) give this squalling slab of fuzzed-out garage-rock a hard, jagged edge. We can’t wait to hear what the Hooks are going to chuck at us next, but for now we’ll just keep this on repeat. -EF