The name of the band? Manic Street Preachers, who debuted with 1992's Generation Terrorists. Not everything’s gone to plan with the once-angry young men going on to release six further albums. And where they were once championed as working-class heroes, they’ve since been accused of selling out.

Fast forward to 2005 and there’s a new young rock band from south Wales demanding as much attention as the nascent Manics. Not that the band would find much favour with Plaid Cymru, made up, as it is, of 22-year-old Rich Frennaux, a London-born front man who grew up in Australasia, Mancunian guitarist/vocalist Kip Armstrong, and a bassist, Shawn Day, who hails from Wyoming. Drummer James Griffith keeps the locals happy at least, coming, as he does, from Cardiff.

Over the course of their debut EP, Frennaux and co. run riot. I haven’t heard four tracks, ‘Lines, Opiates and the Demented Operation’, ‘Condo Royale’, ‘Nothing Inbetween’, and ‘Scheme Eugene’, so infused with the spirit of gleeful abandon since pioneering LA hardcore punks Black Flag called it quits in ‘86. And these fantastic four are no shamateurs either, playing their instruments with aplomb and no little skill.

Dirty Perfect can learn a lot from Manic Street Preachers. I don’t care if they split up after their first album or not. But you’ve got to hope that a group with so much talent don’t turn into a band as boring and self-important as the Manics have sadly become.
(4/5)

Release Date: 14 November 2005

Dirty Perfect

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