Back in February we were pleased to feature a band right on our doorstep here in Chester. At the time, Above The Underground (who have shared stages with the likes of Set Your Goals and Save Your Breath) were working on an EP called Autumns.

Since then ATU has signed to Lazy Bear Records, finished and released that EP – and the results are impressive.

Let’s state the obvious first, ATU aren’t strictly pop punk, but there are shades on pop punk in Autumns and the band clearly has some pop punk sensibilities. They could feasibly support a band like The Wonder Years as much as they could an alternative rock band like You Me At Six.

So how does Autumns sound? The easiest way to describe any music is to find something comparable, and one could easily draw comparisons here to Senses Fail, Set Your Goals, Taking Back Sunday and even bands from completely different genres like Enter Shikari and Editors.

But while the fantastic gang chants of ‘Anchors’ would make Four Year Strong envious and the pop punk MMIX puts the band closer to traditional scene, the instrumental track Lights shows they have a sound all their own. Side note: I’ve never been a fan of instrumental tracks, but if we have to have them, I’d prefer them all to be more like Lights.

Bass drum triplets and chugging guitars are used sparingly but effectively and there are plenty of memorable melodies to be found on Autumns.

I often think that UK pop punk, pop rock, post-hardcore and emo etc (however you want to split hairs) is starting to take its own identity in the same way ‘grime’ artists took hip hop and gave it a distinctly British spin.

Above The Underground are a good example of this. They don’t sound like they’re aping their American counterparts while simply going through the motions, they sound ‘legit’. I just hope they don’t tone down their sound as time goes on, because the “Abandon ship…” gang chant on Anchors is ferocious.

Autumns has some very strong tracks, is well produced and shows a knack for good melodies. I’ll be sure to catch ATU  live next time they’re playing their home town, and look forward to a full-length release.