As I sat down to review this 3 track EP from this Northern Irish 4-piece band, I was hoping for something to lighten the mood as I sit watching the endless grey clouds flow overhead. The reason for my glum nature, is that I have been listening to some rather mediocre Irish music as of late. So as I opened the url to stream this EP online(Listen HERE), I was praying for something to lighten my grey sky blues. As I hit play and the first organ-like drone came bellowing out, I thought I was in line for exactly what I didn’t need. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

After those misleading 6 seconds had past, I was treated to a vibrant and zesty 2 minutes and 46 seconds of power fueled electric anti-pop. By their own admission, their “heavy dependence on Casio keyboards” is vastly apparent in this little ditty. Hopefully this heavy dependence doesn’t limit them going forward as this market is flooded with replica bands from all over. The song ‘Zola’ itself is oddly based around Mr.Gianfranco Zola of footballing genius fame. Not often such topics will be immortalised through Northern Irish youth music. ‘Zola’ is a great little tune I want to immediately add to my iPod “Happy Time” playlist along with other bands such as Vampire Weekend, Passion Pit and The Black Kids.

’33’ is more of the same as the catchy intro plays by. In this song, a comparison must be made to Fight Like Apes in the use of the keyboards/synths being implemented. It’s almost uncanny as the distortion is turned up loudly. Even though a comparison may be made, these two bands couldn’t be any more different as The Wonder Villains squeaky-clean lyrics and sound differs largely from their southern counterparts. ‘Running in Circles’ I must say, lets the EP down slightly. Unlike the previous two songs, which I highly recommend, this song and its production screams “EP Quality”.

All in all, this is a successful first release for these young Derry-based folk. They will soon be embarking on a short Uk & Ireland tour with General Fiasco.

Tour Dates are as follows:

Sat, Oct 22 – Academy 2, Dublin
Sun, Oct 23 – Thekla, Bristol
Tues, Oct 25 – King Tut’s, Glasgow
Wed, Oct 26 – Rainbow, Birmingham
Thurs, Oct 27 – Islington Academy 2, London
Sat, Oct 29 – Deaf Institute, Manchester
Sun, Oct 30 – Speakeasy, Belfast