News Just Handshakes, (We’re British)

are a four piece currently based in Leeds. Sitting incredibly pretty somewhere between the oscillating pop of Jenny Lewis in her Rilo Kiley days and a doo-wop Metric, their recordings are packed with just crisp choruses and sweetly decorated lyrics. After all, it’s not every day you hear pop songs predict the future so sugar coatedly with (probably more-than-a-bit tongue in cheek) lines like ‘You will marry a nice man / who looks like a Blue Peter presenter’.

Odd splatterings of Casio (Operation Daybreak), a sprinkle of boy/girl backing and a nice line in tip-tap drumming make them all the more enticing, showing that you don’t need to get aggressive to produce something that’s as strongly layered rhythmically as it is simply soft melodically.

Having opened Steve Lamacq’s 6 Music show with their current double A Side ‘Single Paper Cranes / Talking Pictures’ (available for a crunch-beating £2 from their Myspace) Just Handshakes, (We’re British) should get to doing some of that, flying off the ‘unsigned’ shelf and into venues near you soon.