The CD arrived by airmail with a vivid pink Post-It note: "it tends to grow on you the more it is listened to so PLAY OFTEN!". One initial listen in, I registered the savoury sink into a darker sound-world (keyboards like echoing corridors, vocals peeking out from blankets of static) but found it formless. A week later I settle down for a proper listen and am forced to report that Locura have immediately grown on me, like an item of clothing one at first thought too daring but subsequently realised was just sexy as all hell. Which, of course, they are... reverberating with excess of stifling lust ("autumn greets me / with a breeze that tastes of you / tempts and teases / smelling of our rendezvous" - all delivered in a submelodic murmur). Singer/keyboardist Queen Mary's voice never does quite emerge from behind ten layers of phasey processing, but it's left sounding human enough that the expression (and lack of inhibition) survives.

For a demo this is quite a treat - ten tracks without a palpable throwaway, an eerie scratched-up photograph of a cover, full lyrics and credits and a nice printed CD to boot. Locura should do very well for themselves; they play (or program) precisely the sort of unreferential, atmosphere-with-guts music people turn to as an escape from bands who believe the worth of a song to be directly proportional to volume. Indeed, the best moments here are not somewhat scary numbers like 'Playing With Fire', but the more reflective meandering pieces awash in synth: opener 'October', closer 'Take'. Which, of course, completely contradicts what I said earlier about form. The best virtues usually are repackaged vices...

Locura have a website at www.locura.cc

and can be contacted at PO Box 360638, Melbourne, FL, USA.