The ’60s ushered in the beat band movement hot on the heels of four cheeky lads from Liverpool and their Anglicisation of black American R&B and soul, the same chaps then reinvented themselves as drugged out messiahs inspiring everything in their wake and bringing psychedelia to the world. The ’70s saw white bands looking at funk and soul, reggae and jazz and by the year zero of 1976 punk allowed anyone and everyone to do what they wanted – from The Clash’s mirroring of black riots to The Damned’s unashamed admiration for late ’60s hippie-punks The MC5. A lot had happened in a short time. The early ’80s saw The Teardrop Explodes and The Specials making it up on the spot fully aware of what went before them and with a vague idea of how they wanted to sound.

But why the need for a potted musical history of the past when describing a brand new and exciting band from 2011? Do we really need this when offering you an idea of what to expect from Wales’ hottest, wildest, latest sensations? Hell yes. THE METHOD could have very well stepped into the recording studio back in 1982, and on their first full length album Dissidents & Dancers they break into your ears like angry young mods inspired by The Specials reared on their older brother’s punk 45s, dope smoking Uncle Robin’ American psych albums, perhaps old pa’s ska, soul and R&B discs… and oh yes, the neighbourly rasta’s Lee Scratch Perry collection! It’s all there (and more) with a throw-it-up-in-the-air-and-see-what-happens-when-it-lands approach.

Richie Hayes’ yearning vocal on ‘Your Humble Entertainers’ plus the song’s ‘Luicifer Sam’-like Floydian mutant surf riff and floating Farfisa certainly bring a young, acid-fried Julian Cope to mind. ‘We Don’t Know’ matches The Hives’ vitriolic garage and punk hoopla with added parping horns and mad-man Pebbles-like organ. ‘The Fool’ conversely crashes stuttering post-punk riffs into dub and the mariachi horns of Forever Changes whilst ‘Consider This Your Warning’ could just about pass for a riled Tom Waits fighting with The Monkees. Odd descriptions perhaps, but The Method genuinely play outside the boundaries.

So okay, The Coral, The Bees and The Zutons have had no problem in identifying their roots and mashing it all together either, yet there’s something decidedly edgy about The Method which make it hard to fully associate them with contemporary bands. They’re less hippy or chilled, Tropicalia-loving or Scally. And as many lose their jobs, the economy crumbles and the face of pop music continues to die there’s a lot to be angry about – just as there was in 1982.