The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 48

22 1 Music The Guardian Friday September 19 1997 They're back. We pitilessly forced David Bennun to listen to their new album and he wrote this before the pain became1 overwhelming In the ocean cave HfiVBKL 9l Ocean Colour Scene Marchin' Already (Universal) Back in the lab, QFMmi flat on the slab, WMMi something stirs. Scene. The name has the mintsy, wispy quality of the Baggy afterbirth the band once were. Having missed one main chance, OCS lurked through the dark, Brit-unfriendly years of grunge, hacking and stitching at themselves, waiting for their time to come, as they knew it must.

They are testimony to the qualities of persistence and self-belief, and what a pain in the arse they can be. Any less dogged and this lot would all be driving minicabs by now, bothering nobody except punters who dont relish long journeys to the sound of the Spencer Davis Group. Instead they are hugely successful, and completely Inescapable. Unless you're a particulariy dedicated hermit, you're going to hear this record whether you want to or not. Listening to Marchin' Already is slightly less fun than force-feeding yourself a bucket of dust.

houi pranxen- fiS stein ana mun- mmmmm iwtaSSJ creature that invented itself. Ocean Colour Wa an arid, choking experience. They're not inspired by the 1 960s, but fanatical about recreating them, locked Into sterile longing for a time they never knew. And Marchin' Already Is a desiccated, Jilted spinster of an album, shut up in a decaying bail-room, sat unmovlng these 30 years in Hs never-used bridal gown as rats nibble the wedding cake and spiders spin an empire from the chandeliers. To say OCS have missed the point Is to suggest they ever knew there was one.

The musk: which obsesses them was bom off a sense of adventure, always reaching for something new, always alive and searching. Why do they think the mods were called the mods? Have they ever wondered why Motown branded itself The Sound of Young Could It have had something to do with not trying to be your dad all over again? OCS are a nostalgia cabaret act that nobody's rambled yet, because they happen to deal In pastiche rather than straightforward cover versions. Spiritually, they truly are a bunch of ageing cabbies. No other British band Is so compulsive, so nitpicking, so comprehensively nailed into the BpT'j Acacia iB The music press have invented all manner of tags for Acacia drum'n'bass with rawk; ambient pop with 1980s 1lHHBKMlHiHHH leanings; indie-synth territory; machine-driven death metal; cute floaty pop; industrial jungle-funk. No wonder that Radio 1 is feeling confused and unwilling to include their fantastic current single, Wired, on its playlist.

This polyphonic sound (Japanese ill i i i Li i I koto, Celtic chants, Arabian wails, tablas, disco, jungle, violins) is no I I II rmim surprise given the multicultural line-up. But it is Guy Sigsworth (ex-Bomb The Bass and Bjork collaborator) and Alexander (surnameless, charismatic frontman and lyricist) who really put the solid wood into the Acacia sound. They've got tabla drums and acoustic guitar on their cover of Morrissey's The More You lMBHH Ignore Me, The Closer I Get, imbuing it with a warmth and dynamism the original could only dream of. The message is political without ramming polemics down your.