Having been born of the open mic performance circuit of the UK, young, up and coming alt. rockers  River Fury are a testament to the early doors performances and how vital they are to growth for both bands individually and for our music scene as a whole. What may sound humble and pure beginnings in this case has produced a very promising prospect indeed, as evidenced by this short but sweet EP, Five Year Plan (Painted Halo Records).

Certainly students and fans of several scenes, over this debut EP River Fury show a lot of nods and a pretty well crafted mix of different styles. EP opener ‘Wasteful’ for example has a British Indie vibe of the early 2000’s but with a slight Punk like tinge to it, whilst the following ‘Walking In The Sand’ feels the polar opposite with a dream like post-Rock style with deep, drawling vocals.

These smooth, minimalist guitar lines also appear in the title track but hit a more upbeat tone, with a catchy post-Rock meets Pop-Punk and Brit Pop concoction (it works a lot better than that sounds, trust me).

The EP does raise the issue as to whether this wide mix of styles will work so well in a longer format, and to whether or not the band will need to refine or streamline in future, but here in a small dose they manage to showcase quite some creativity and make it work pretty fluidly, if a little muddle in flow. They certainly take a less travelled route in their sound than it may first appear and for that alone this deserves some merit. That the songs are catchy and well crafted as well means that these could well have a good future. It will be very interesting to see how the next stage goes.

6 / 10

CHRIS TIPPELL