As 2003 draws to a close, one thing that has been very encouraging this year is the high standard of demos despatched to Chez Gourlay over the past few months, and it is with great pleasure that I introduce the latest in this long line of aural feasts just waiting for the rest of the world to join in their sonic banquet.

White Noise have already tasted a degree of critical acclaim under their previous guise (three quarters of the band played together as Face) and despite one or two internal crises, the four tracks on here provide startling evidence that the hiatus has done them the world of good.

Along with a new name comes a more brisque, energetic sound fraught with tense chugging riffs and nonchalent asides from frontman Andy Shipley, that threaten to crush old school noisemeisters Six By Seven into submission.

This eponymously titled debut contains four tracks in all, and if the double whammy of 'Mothers Ruin' and 'Moneysuckle' - both of which reside in the Cooper Temple school of artistically challenging rock domain - don't pollute your eardrums and make residence in your brain, there's always the slightly more soothing 'Deaf Ears' to polymerize those underworked synapses.

It's very rare that a band lives up to their name - "The Thrills" being the most obvious example - so with that in mind, White Noise do exactly what it says on the tin, and most importantly, they do it better than 99% of the competition.