Adelaide seems to be undergoing a belated renaissance in indie rock – after close to a decade of producing tepid straight ahead rock, punk, and rap-metal acts, the likes of Bit By Bats and wolf & cub are forging a new identity for the City of Churches. Even if they do still have to move to the east coast to be taken seriously.

Straight to Video are the latest in a bunch of acts to be clearly influenced by the likes of indie legends bergerac – they bring the indie guitar elements of Sonic Youth in touch with a cut ‘n paste touches of the likes of Broken Social Scene. In short, they sound not entirely unlike Gerling did when they began. Now, Black Solo is not as exciting a debut EP as a day of research. The opening instrumental “Video Drone” is a nice set up, but “Stoke the Crass” doesn’t manage to be the pay off that it should be – principally because the vocals are buried too far back in the mix.

It’s the sort of thing that holds bands back from being truly fabulous, and Straight to Video are not there yet. On songs like “Minimalworld” and the very exciting “Ten to Ten” they combine it all with a heady post-punk rhythm, and the band push up the tempo to satisfying result. It is certain that in their loose and ragged vibe, they have something very interesting in development.