THE BELL PEPPERS "Cooking With Bell Peppers"

A basic home recording set-up, some retro knitting pattern artwork and a Bandcamp account. These days that’s all the ingredients a band needs to launch themselves on the world. So say hello to The Bell Peppers - even if The Bell Peppers sound as though the days they are really interested in are from the early 1950s. The opening track on the ‘Cooking with Bell Peppers’ EP is ‘Rubber Bullets’ which mixes fidgety twanging surf-guitar, an occasional shout of “tutti frutti” and a primitive mono sound to serve up a groovy Fifties summer sundae treat. The other four tracks on their debut release (a free digital download) stick with the period but subtly shift styles: the languid romantic sway of ‘Monquito’s Diner’ or the peppier swing of ‘Bell Pepper Hop’ or the spooky strut of ‘Doin’ The Moon Freak’. All sound as though the only thing missing is vintage vinyl crackle.

The duo from Manchester, Meek Bell & Dee Pepper allegedly, play all the guitars and percussion on these instrumentals that unite pre-rock ‘n’ roll innocence with a garage primitivism. There’s very little updating or overhaul of the formula – think of the authentic retro reverence of Kitty, Daisy & Lewis combined with a bit of Cramps rawness – and the band are not as intense or fuzzy as the current surf-rock meisters Y Niwl but there is a tuneful allure and refreshing lack of pretence or archness in their celebration of the innocence of an earlier age. Next for The Bell Peppers will be live performances for Morris Six and Trash-O-Rama nights where the band are “gonna try and cut it live with loop pedals and layering - and vocal spasms done by Dee”. Cookin’ indeed.