Tall Ships (No 998)

Hometown: Brighton.

The lineup: Ric Phethean (guitar, vocals, synths), Matt Parker (bass, sampler), Jamie Bush (drums, bass).

The background: Tall Ships have been on our radar for a while now, but it's only with the release of their new single Plate Tectonics that we've decided to feature them here, mainly because we like the idea of geological forces being used as a metaphor for love, but also because the band have finally got good. We realise "got good" is hardly the most incisive and intelligent response to a piece of music this year, but we're saving ourselves for the 1,000th New Band of the Day this Thursday.

Tall Ships seem incisive and intelligent. They've even got a song called Books, and another called Words Are Pegs Upon Which We Hang Ideas. And their track Vessels includes the immortal chat-up line: "You are a triumph of natural selection/ Every mutation leading to your perfection." We bet Ashley Cole uses that one a lot down Aquum.

We're presuming Plate Tectonics is about love. It's hard to tell with Tall Ships because you tend to focus on the interplay between guitar and bass, which at certain points one is tempted to describe as a "complex lattice". Not a complex lettuce, don't be ridiculous. To be honest, it's all a bit retro, but they're not doing the usual plundering of the 60s, 70s or 80s. No, this is more like a return to the "math rock" of Battles or Foals, or the herky-jerky indie-funk of the Futureheads and Friendly Fires. It's like being back in 2005-7, those halcyon days when there was no chillwave and post-dubstep pop.

Actually, as keen readers of this column can attest, we love chillwave and post-dubstep pop. But we're also partial to Tall Ships' brand of brainiac indie. We especially like the contrast between the rhythmic thrust and Phethean's vocals, which have the forlorn quality of a singer from the early-70s "Canterbury scene". He doesn't sing as high as Robert Wyatt or as low as Kevin Ayers, but there's a serene charm and folky whimsy there that brings those gentlemen to mind.

Warning: you need to stick with their songs, because they often start off unpromisingly, only to build towards a genuinely thrilling climax. And beware: they change tempo a lot, they switch between electronic and acoustic so that on a track such as Vessels you can hear the scrape of finger against guitar string, and they even swap instruments when they're playing live, just like Frankie Goes to Hollywood during their legendary last performance of Two Tribes on Top of the Pops. Ah, Frankie, those other great exponents of love balladry.

The buzz: "Tall Ships have a sound which will meet the expectations of fans of psychedelic rock and keep lovers of strong rhythm and melody in a comfortable place." – indiebandsblog.com.

The truth: They will make the earth move.

Most likely to: Strike a chord with mid-noughties nostalgists.

Least likely to: Play one chord when 15 will do.

What to buy: Plate Tectonics was released this week by Big Scary Monsters.

File next to: Foals, Battles, Futureheads, Friendly Fires.

Links: myspace.com/tallshipsfromfalmouth.

Wednesday's new band: Delilah.