Like some kind of Web 2.0 start-up company, or a 21st Century pharmaceutical, This Is Head release their manifesto. This document though, is full of aural delights. Branded like a release candidate version of software, 0001 takes the current crop of Balearic pop and pushes it outwards, away from it's current and stationary boundaries, and into a new and epic direction.Each track gets a number. No title to betray its innermost thoughts, nothing to give away the slightest hint of the magic contained within. Just the way I like it. The comparison with Dan Lissvik's work will be obvious, but there's a harder leading edge here. Guitars are thrashed within inches of their lives, squeals of pain wreaked from their material bodies. This is the post-Gothenburg sound. Still taking cues from the  UK music scene circa-Factory Records at their best, blessing this album with a darker production, those crystalline drums creating an amazing beat and rhythm that's almost from another world.The masterful centrepiece '0003' sprawls like a startled behemoth. Slowly awakening and brooding before breaking free of its ambient, and Vangelis echoing, beginnings and ripping a hole in the entire track with a crash of guitars. This turns the track into something not unlike King Crimson at their most open minded. However, when opener '0009' kicks off, you'd be hard pressed to believe what lay ahead. Its bouncing pop beats and chiming guitars is the love child of New Order and The Cure on their way to Top of the Pops. This Is Head are mixing a massive palette of influences, distilling the best bits and forcing them into something new and wonderful.Lyrics and vocals are sparingly used. This Is Head are happy to let the music do the talking. And that's probably a good thing, as when these elements do kick it, as on '0007', it drags them into shoe-gaze territory, a place which pigeon-holes them, and does them a disservice. '0012' flirts with jazz as the sax percolates through the skittish drums and Pink Floyd-esque guitars. The album ends with The Cure aping '0013'. The brooding bass, the ice-cool guitar riff perfectly matches to the clean, pure production that allows the track, and the entire album as a whole, to breath and flow.At the beginning of the year I made a comment to my TLOBF-partner-in-crime Mr. Thane about the Swedish music scene. It was along the lines of wondering if the Lissvik associated and influenced bands could take it to the next level. Could these acts develop their quickly established, and now trademark, sound into something bigger and broader. Well, This Is Head have shown them the way with 0001. This is a classy and classic debut by a band destined for greatness... As long as they continue this development, of course...This Is Head: "0003"Featured photo by Jesper Berg via the band's Myspace page