The Hype Machine, http://hypem.com, set up by 20-year-old computer science student Anthony Volodkin, “follows music blog discussion”. As their About Us section continues: “Every day, hundreds of people around the world write about music they love. Then it all shows up here for you to explore.”

Searching for Brighton-based four-piece Oom on Volodkin’s brainchild yields precisely zero related results. A s(h)ituation which has seen the band turn to PR old hand, Nik Moore. He of the punning Moore Publicity was formerly a partner and account executive at Work Hard PR.

The 2002 winners of Horsham’s Battle of the Bands, though, do a good job of selling themselves on their long-awaited debut album. Vocalist Debbie Clare and guitarist/sampler Ed Chivers actually formed Oom as a bedroom recording project. After picking up support slots with local heroes British Sea Power and Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, they’ve since added one of their fans Alex Hay on guitar and share drummer Darren Lindridge with Jacobs Stories.

Clare herself is a bit of a part-timer, as she’s also a member of Massive Attack who recruited her when they heard an Oom demo. Currently she both writes and sings with the Bristol collective, penning, for example, ‘Joy Luck Club’ which featured on their Collected Best-of album. Fittingly, Oom’s signature sound is not too dissimilar from Massive Attack’s haunting trip-hop experimentalism.

With more exposure, thanks to Moore Publicity, allied to the efforts of independent Essex-based label Series 8, a search on The Hype Machine is bound to elicit some relevant results sometime soon. Instead of the two for The Rivington’s ‘Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow’. An obscure title if ever I heard one.

(3½/5)