A Balloon Called Moaning

Welsh band's mini-LP, out last year in the UK and now being issued in the States, demonstrates a flair for guitar anthems.

Sexylove shoegaze from recent (and riotous) TLOBF gig headliners, and hotly tipped new young band-on-the-rise: short, but sweet in a lot of the right places.

The Joy Formidable, the name adopted by the Welsh trio of Ritzy Bryan, Rhydian Dafydd Davies, and Matt Thomas, suggests that of Joy Division, and on their debut EP, A Balloon Called Moaning, the musicians also recall Joy Division's post-punk style on driving tracks that find Bryan chant-singing her impressionistic lyrics over them in almost arbitrary fashion.