Magistrates

Hometown: South Woodham Ferrers, Essex.
The lineup: Paul Usher (vocals, keyboards), Mark Brandon (guitar), Thom Galbally (bass), Andy Grant (drums).
The background: The clamour to get in, the crowds spilling out on to the streets - we got the impression the hot-house atmosphere at the Camden launch party-cum-gig to celebrate the release of Sam Sparro's album back in May was at least in part due to support band Magistrates: the excitement was intense, and the talk garbled, about these four good-looking lads with great hair from Essex who were doing interesting things with funk. And now they're finally - and we say finally because two months is a long time in pop these days - putting out their debut single, we're glad to say it doesn't disappoint. Make This Work has a rough, ragged, almost demo-like quality, probably due to the fact that it was recorded in the guitarist's bedroom on an old 16-track tape machine, but that almost works to its advantage, separating it from the rest of the indie-funk crowd, while the singer's falsetto veers between try-hard and comical, like Sparro's only less accomplished, but again, the effect isn't wholly displeasing - great pop music, as if we need reminding, isn't about hitting the high notes, it's about aiming high. Of their other tracks, The Inbetweens and Colour Coordination are faster and more frantic indie-funk workouts and, if anything, are better than the single, the latter in particular fairly racing along at a northern soul pace.
We're not sure how deep it goes or the extent to which they're dabbling - they used to be in a Starsailor-ish combo called Echelon, and apparently they're big fans of psychedelia and singer-songwriters, of Scott Walker and Trout Mask Replica - but Magistrates do a fairly convincing impression of white boys on funk. But this is the scratchy and organic variety, the sort of ramshackle, rhythmic non-electronic rock you'd get if Hard Fi, say, played Prince. They've got a keyboard and they're not afraid to use it but this is not the machine delirium of nu rave or electroclash revisited, it's not as slick as Jamie Lidell, it's the unsynthetic sound of early 80s white funk bands like Stimulin or Funkapolitan, The Kane Gang or Style Council, of chicken-scratch guitars and dingy bargain-basement attempts to recreate the big American funk sound of Ohio Players and Kool & The Gang.
Magistrates, like every indie band ever, make claims for themselves that are both ambitious and silly: they want to have a No 1 album with "pop music that pushes boundaries", they're "fresh and cutting edge", they make "unashamedly sexual music for the mind, feet and hips", and - look away now, kids - they want "to infect the world with a dirty groove like some out-of-control STD". But this isn't the diseased disco of a Happy Mondays or the venereal freak-funk of a Rick James, it's just the joyous sound of four boys working up a sweat to rival the US funk masters, and somehow failing, yet somehow succeeding.
The buzz: "Talk about hot property: Magistrates are radioactive."
The truth: It sounds like they've only got one album in them before they change their minds and change direction, but it could be a pretty good one.
Most likely to: Make outrageous prophesies on their own behalf.
Least likely to: Hand out prophylactics at their gigs.
What to buy: Make This Work is released by SWF on August 4.
File next to: Hard Fi, Hot Chip, Kane Gang, Sam Sparro.