Leave your wetsuit at home, but do remember your Ray-Bans. Hailing from San Diego, Crocodiles are explorers of the darker side of Californian life.

In the moody ‘Sleep Forever’, Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell layer reverberating vocals over jagged synth to fashion a piece of retro-while-contemporary noise-pop. Elsewhere in their catalogue nods to post-punk abound, but here it doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination to conceive of Lou Reed drawling his way through the drugged-out haze.

As the duo put it, their music ain’t about Surf City, USA. Rather, think The Mamas & the Papas on a particularly grey winter’s day, atmospheric fuzz taking the place of a flute solo.

Release Date 05/07/2010 (Fat Possum Records)

David Stedman

David Stedman has followed the Manchester music scene with keen interest since arriving in the city over ten years ago. A Shropshire native, he has a particular fondness for smaller live venues. He is never happier than when listening to acts that make use of a guitar or keyboard in some way.