Albums by hobby bands are generally greeted with indifference; prompting followers of the groups to urge them to return to their day jobs. Last year an album by Brakes collated the talents of a number of idiosyncratic British band members including the White brothers of Electric Soft Parade, Hamilton from British Sea Power, Marc Beatty from The Tenderfoot plus an assortment of cameos from The Duke Spirit and The Pipettes. For those expecting an English take on Broken Social Scene though, Brakes cut to the chase with sixteen tracks in half an hour (some of which clock in at less than a minute), lo-fi production values and slacker lyrics (a cry of "Whatever dude!" on 'Heard About Your Band'). Despite the White brothers being the supposed natural choice for vocal duties it is Hamilton (normally a guitarist) who takes centre stage but - as it transpires - his yelping David Byrne-style delivery makes perfect sense over the frantic punky pop. Granted, a lot of these songs are so short there's barely time to enjoy them but towards the middle of the record they hit form with wired new-wave pop ('I Can't Stand To Stand Beside You', 'All Night Disco Paty') and a spirited cover of the Jerry Leiber-written 'Jackson' whilst the dreamy 'You're So Pretty' sounds like an off-cut from the White brothers' previous albums. 'Give Blood' was doubtlessly a lot of fun for the people involved but pleasingly it's fun to listen to for an outsider too.