Now here’s something that some people are going to get very excited about – yet another band from the fertile fields of Canada. This time, Magneta Lane are a three-piece from Toronto that sounds more than a touch like Blondie at their CBGB’s peak.

Which means, of course, that they’re a bit messy, a touch chaotic, and very, very exciting indeed. The ringing guitars are as catchy as catchy gets, and in Lexi (no surnames; like Cher) they have someone whose sultry voice is more than capable of eliciting both lust – “Kissing is Easy”, “Medusa” – and a sense of isolation, as on “Ugly Socialite”. A bit like Debbie Harry’s then.

Magneta Lane won’t be long for the independent climes of the likes of Paper Bag Records or Australian label Shiny. As an all-girl three-piece, they’ve instantly got a bucketload of marketability to them, but fortunately they’ve also got the songs to back it up – the vicious bass on “Medusa” from French is radical, while the drumming from Nadia never lets up throughout the course of this EP. Mark Magneta Lane down for Next Big Thing status in 2006.