Paul Kelly is in BMX Bandits, and he's recorded with Carla J. Easton (TeenCanteen), among many others. He's revived his project, The Martial Arts, and the band have just released a superb new EP. I Used To Be The Martial Arts is out now via Last Night From Glasgow, and the release is the sort of thing that should please fans of, say, Teenage Fanclub and anything Stu Kidd has been associated with (Stu is on this one too).
Opener "New Performance" is big and Beatles-esque, like something from Jellyfish, while "I Used To Be" is reminiscent of some of the recent selections from the Fannies, among many others. Kelly has a knack for making all of this sound so easy, and it's that kind of knack that allows "How Will I Progress" to stand out as a unique blend of some obvious points of inspiration. If the track sounds a very tiny bit like Silver Sun or The Supernaturals, I can think of no higher bit of praise than that. The final cut on I Used To Be The Martial Arts is "You've Ruined Everything", a string-drenched confection that sounds like any number of pop singles from the Swinging Sixties -- think something from The Hollies, maybe. Every cut on this EP is great, really, and any fan of BMX Bandits, or any other project Kelly's a part of, will likely love this as much as I did. Now here's waiting for a full-length release!
I Used To Be The Martial Arts is out now via Last Night From Glasgow.
More details on The Martial Arts via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: Brian Sweeney]