Singles

Escort Knights - I Don't Know Your Name

Dominic Valvona 23/11/2010

Rating: 3/5

Lauded as a welcoming antidote to these austere and troubling times, Escort Knights, apparently, “declare war on depression!”, with their “dancing, drinking and procreation” rhetoric.

You may derive from their bellowing publicity clippings that we're in for some sort of lad's rock - the kind so beloved by Nuts and GQ. Fortunately and thankfully, for the most part, we are treated to something more brooding and assiduous; even though the themes and subject matter may cause rolling eye syndrome.

I Don't Know Your Name is a radio-friendly tub of vapour trail led synths and four-to-the-floor pumping house beats, underpinned by a pulsing bass. Unfolding over this indie-disco backbeat, is an unfortunate tale of nightclubs and picking-up the ladies, as delivered by an Essex version of The Killers rumbling with a more mundane Artic Monkeys.

The real surprise and highlight comes courtesy of their darker, resigned and moodier second track Hole In The Heart. Far more ambitious then the single, this erratic violin opening indie taut number, navigates past the likes of Ian Brown, The Engineers and Puressence.

Hopefully the Leeds-based Escort Knights will settle on the latter, taking the soulfully melancholy pop route; a pathway that's far more interesting and memorable.