Cornwall is not particularly renowned for producing great new music, and when a bandbegins life practicing in the glamorous setting of a Women’s Institute hall, it doesn’t lookterribly promising. It’s clear though, as soon as There Is Nothing But Chemistry Here, the second EP from the Falmouth-formed Tall Ships kicks in, that this is something a little bitspecial.

‘Plate Tectonics’ starts things off thick and fast, with driving indie-guitars and a quickand simple beat, but soon breaks down into a masterful bass/drums driven half time. From here on in these continual and often sudden changes in texture become a staple, withsongs constantly building up and breaking down, never staying in the same place for anylength of time, and keeping the attention firmly on the intricately interwoven guitar riffs, tight rhythms and flowing synth lines. Low vocals surge over much of the five songs, with more frequency and purpose than the band’s first EP, but don’t much feel like the focus until ‘Ode to Ancestors’, where nothing but a slow synth accompanies the lyrics for themost part of the song. Lines like “this is my ode to your ancestors/ appreciate your recipe/their million year masterpiece” at first stand out as slightly awkward but somehow seem tojust work after a while. The repetitive, but never irritating few lines of ‘Chemistry’ however, need no time at all, and will get into your head and stay there from the moment they comein on a first listen, making for an obvious choice for a single.

Comparisons with Foals, at least in their earlier days, seem fairly valid, and thecomplex beats, involved riffs and ever-changing song structures certainly fit with the ‘math-rock’ genre, but despite the cleverness of the song writing, the music remains veryapproachable, and extremely listenable, much more so I think, than their first, self titledoffering.

Still though, it feels as if the band don’t quite get everything out of themselves in theshort 20 minute running time, and when the slow, mellow outro ‘Bearandblitz’ brings it down to a close, there is a definite sense that this is not all they are capable of. The EP unmistakably comes from a band confident in their own skin, who have clearly grown since their last release, but there is a slight wanting for something more, and given time to further develop into a fully formed whole, it feels like they could satisfy that want, and make something outstanding. We’ll have to wait and see.