His early-morning cigarette voice and guitar in tow, Emmet Scanlan rounds up his oddly named posse for a debut that makes a considerable virtue of its scattergun song book. With echoes of Brendan Murphy and The Four of Us’ strutting cockiness, as well as whispers of long, dark songwriting nights, Scanlan co stretch their canvas wide. Their soundtrack experience on the short film, Without Words , may be paying dividends on Hands , where they sink deep beneath the skin of a song. They resist the the temptation to rev it up and instead bask in a slow- burning atmosphere. This is what happens with Gotcha Looking On and its companion piece, Dressed . Cello lines suggest a hankering after the mystery of Nick Drake, a well-chosen acolyte, should they need one. www.emmetscanlan.com SIOBHÁN LONG