Featuring the mad skills of former XTC guitarist Dave Gregory, this Swindon-based quartet view themselves as “a prog band without keyboards”. Their warm, weathered sound exists somewhere in a hinterland between The Byrds and Big Big Train.
It’s evolved since their formation as a covers combo who trotted out Genesis and Yes numbers like that was the easiest thing in the world. Now there’s a clear identity to Mark Kilminster’s vocals and the impeccably sculpted shapes.
Summer Now is a languid reverie, but it’s the fluctuating 15-minute finale Garden State that shows their true leanings, sewing sections together with a grace the right side of indulgence. There’s nothing radical about Tin Spirits, but there’s a glow to their class./o:p