The Grates are rather unexpected: the only viable one-word summary is probably 'demented'. Australia's latest export have caught the eyes of the ever-catchy Zutons and will play support for the latter's UK tour – and it's not too hard to see why. Brash and rather insane right from the opening minute-long 'I Won't Survive', which sounds like a cross between a frightening Alice in Wonderland moment crossed with traditional Chinese music, The Grates make it abundantly clear they don't intend to conform.

This two-girl, one-boy guitar band are fronted by the exciting vocals of Patience Hodgson, who alternately soars prettily above the rough yet invariably co-ordinated riffs, or shatters into discordant, ear-catching yells. Often sounding akin to Soulwax's intense second album Any Minute Now, this edgy mix of the gentle and bracingly harsh both vocally and musically is at first unsettling, before distilling itself into a whole lot of fun.

First single '19 20 20' has a great joie de vivre in its bouncy ebullience, and despite the occasional lapse into the derivative (the extremely Nirvana 'Feels Like Pain' which comes rather too close to being the first song of teen angst that should never find a wider audience than one) there is a pervading freshness to Gravity Won't Get Your High. With the majority of its 14 tracks cruising in at under three minutes, it's also extremely punchy and simply doesn't leave you time to get bored before racing off into something completely different.

The Grates seem to have found a niche amidst pop, crazed nursery rhymes and genuine madness. Despite the odds, it all works rather well; while not immediately accessible in the same mould of their tour companions, like The Zutons the excitement and energy of this thoroughly unhinged trio is extremely difficult to resist.
(4/5)