You want fanboy gushing? This radio session, originally broadcast months ago, has only recently been available to download, and I’ve been listening to it compulsively like some spurned lover ever since. Brandyman comprise three members of Cardiff’s musical undergrowth: ex-Truckers Of Husk and FTSE100 man Ben Woods plays guitar, lankily; Matt Thomas, escapee from Joy Of Sex, is an equally good looking guitarist; while DC Gates, one half of Gindrinker and beloved as Billy The Seal round these parts takes up distressed caterwauling and acerbic one liner duty. They also have a drummer, but that’s not important: Brandyman are barely a few gigs old and already mining a deep seam of elephant metal riffing, furious stop/start dynamics and black, scabrous humour. It’s hard to overstate how much you need this music in whatever you call your life.

Three songs, all short, dense and gory. ‘Cockpit’ traces the delirious arc of an earthbound pilot, DC namechecking Gerard Manley Hopkins before his bones smash into the ground. It’s great obviously, twin guitars galloping, stopping dead, then racing hysterically towards a clanging, brutal ending. ‘Tapers’ has less narrative psychodrama, but features some vaguely chorus-shaped noises and a section where DC growls like a gaffa-taped wolf. There’s a lot of fun to be had seeing how the vocals fit over these tightly controlled, self replicating riff rollers; it’s kind of miraculous how both sides coat each other completely. Anyway, here’s ‘Uncle’: literally, no creeping doubt, one of the best things you’ll hear all year. The music: a downhill rocker, slipping gears and busting fretboard runs with serpentine ease. The lyrics: an aggrieved old man berates the youth’s musical taste, wallows in old metal heroes, and barks oblique boastful gibberish. “I used to go out with all of Girlschool / I’ve ridden on a motorbike with Geddy Lee and he sounds like Brian Blessed.” Fistfulls of unironic devil horn worship meet a cheery acknowledgement of metal’s inbuilt ridiculousness and… smile. Heads down, hands down, this is superfine goodness.

http://brandyman.bandcamp.com/