- The Jungle Giants are a happening young quartet of go-getters. They produce energetic indie-pop-rock that should give them every chance of following in the footsteps of your Ball Park Music, Last Dinosaurs and Hungry Kids Of Hungary types. They're signed to Paul Piticco's new Create / Control label too (you might remember Paul from Dew Process, home of The Grates, John Steel Singers and Yves Klein Blue, amongst many others), which is an indisputable omen of being on a fastrack to the top. Actually Create / Control is worth a little mention, all by itself. What's good about it is enshrined in it's name, the control bit. Artists control 100% of their copyright; take that you big four, er, three, rapidly perishing dinosaurs of the music industry!
Of course, the flipside of almost guaranteed success is what it takes to get there, which is, usually, being just a little bit generic, a little bit boring. I've had a spray or two in my time at the artistic sterility of sunny, upbeat indie-pop and yet, there's something in the breezy simplicity of The Jungle Giants approach which I find difficult to hate. It's best exemplified in the first single and title track, standing proudly right at the front of their debut EP, She's A Riot. Jumping as anything (it has handclaps), all dosed up with the possibilities of young love and with a twist of heartsore yearning running through it, just the dash of grown-up flavour you need. It's unpretentious indie-pop rock that works. It also has a pretty endearing video, which is worth heading to the you-tubez for; one of those clever all-in-one-shot deals. I was quite interested to see what The Giants would follow-up with and the immediate answer is, more of the same. Don't Know What Else To Do (appropriate title?) is a bit more mopey than the single, but is still a romance-obsessed, pumping indie-pop. You've Got Something, by contrast, with the enormous guitar sound of its big chorus, is a stab at stadium rock and a convincing one. Way Back When turns the wistfulness up as far as it will go and layers on some reverb too, building to a big, emotional climax, full of crashing guitar and long rolling of drums. The aptly titled Back To The Start, returns to the simple, pure energy that powered She's A Riot and has an almost ska rhythm that never hurts when you're trying to get people bouncing all over the place.
I want to be as cynical as hell about The Jungle Giants and, as they ascend the ladder of rock stardom, I don't doubt they will, I'll have every opportunity. Still if this extraordinarily confident EP is based on a formula we've heard very many times before, it is also likely to be just about it's most convincing proponent this year. The Jungle Giants are going places, I just thought I'd get in early and let you know.

- Chris Cobcroft.