Not Made In China - Not Made In China EP

It’s not often you listen to a band and agree wholeheartedly with their own description of themselves, or previous press reviews, but in the case of Not Made In China you have a band who know their identity and make it clear to everyone else. The review description was The Smiths crossed with Paul Simon’s Graceland, while the band themselves note Vampire Weekend as one of their main inspirations. There is also more than a dash of twee influence here, with the cutesy female vocals reminiscent of The Sundays or even Talulah Gosh. The thing that sets them apart from the current slew of overly fey and twee bands is that they have evidently concentrated much more on the melodies than some affected knock kneed stance.

My favourite track is Retro Rejects, about the discarding of childhood toys. It has the twiddly white man take of the African sounding guitar line, great lyrics which include whole lists of toys and a nice attitude. If this sounds too much like I Love the 80s to you, then I’ve failed in my job of describing it. The rest of the EP is rather unassuming yet beautiful, and I can recommend you invest in a copy.

Not Made In China myspace is here and you can buy the EP here