This is the third studio album from Cardiff’s The Victorian English Gentlemens Club (to reduce the word count and potentially RSI will be referred to as TVEGC) and before someone complains, yes the band realise that there should be an apostrophe in their name, it’s an art school thing! Having had a couple of line-up changes since their original inception, original founding members Adam Taylor and Louise Mason are complimented with the addition of drummer James Griffiths.

Bag of Meat is the opening track to the album and starts off with the type of beats that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the 1980s as seems to be de rigueur for many bands these days. However, that’s where the 80s seems to end as the rest of Bag of Meat is filled with short vocals about "sitting on the bus with a bag of meat", proud parents and eventually the bag leaking. This is interspersed with short stabbing drum moments and choral vocals which mirror the stabbing nature of the drums. At times it leans into a post-punk vibe, but that description draws back from the fact that there is a much more layered style on offer here.

A Conversation is comparatively a lot bouncier, with a drum pattern that draws comparisons with the 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, with a distorted vocal chorus moment around which the drums come and go either side. Richer Than My Tribe follows with a heavier bass line, rapier like drums and thundering guitars, it is short and punchy and hugely satisfying.

Bizarrely Lost My Face in a Fast Car Race begins with wind chimes and tribal chanting, before the comforting off-kilter vocals and short blurts of music break out in softer version of the earlier tribal chanting. There is so much happening here and the track lurches into different styles, that it comes as a surprise that the track is only just over three minutes long.

By the time Pistol Whipped arrives, everything has calmed a little, the stabbing nature of earlier tracks and strained vocals are replaced by something that might be seen as more mainstream, but that isn’t to say there are no psychedelic elements here, they are just give a back seat for the moment. Even My Imagination Can’t Save Me Now, despite its odd harmonica burst and crackling riff feels much calmer and by the time As Jungle Drums Rang Across the Amazon (We Held Our Heads and Screamed) looms into view there is a danger of the second half of the album getting soft in the middle.

Thankfully Card Trick with a Chimp is not only lyrically mental, but runs a cracking riff from start to finish, allowing some interspatial sounds to invade the vacuous tunnel of sound that is growing, before the track suddenly launches into a completely unexpected psychedelic vocal surreal ending. This carries on into John Denver’s Wife with its choppy intro that veers into a 1970s styled cow bell chorus. It is all so unexpected and that’s what makes TVEGC different, challenging and ultimately rewarding.

Not Waving But Drowning is the closing track on the album and initially begins with a beautifully clear vocal performance from Louise, before the track lurches into elements that you would have not found out of place on The Rapture’s fantastically seminal EP Out of the Races and onto the Tracks. It’s a complete mess of sound and vocals with huge slabs of instrumental noises launching in and out of the piece, it is in one word fantastic. After a few seconds there is the addition of a bonus track, but who knows with TVEGC it could be a reprise of Not Waving But Drowning with completely different lyrics and style, but by this stage who cares, the more you can hear from TVEGC the better.

Queen Victoria may not be amused, but there is something delightfully different on offer in the form of TVEGC’s new album Bag of Meat.

Reviewed by Jimbo Walsh.

Bag of Meat by The Victorian English Gentlemens Club is available to download from Amazon.