They're two brothers, plus three musician friends, and though they're from Leicester they're the anti-Kasabian, low on hackneyed riffs but high on harmonies and FX. The McCarthy boys – Jake, 22, and Rory, 19 – started out in 2009 wanting to be a Hurts-style synth-pop duo, complete with Auto-Tuned vocals. Since then, they've found their mojo – and, it would appear, a copy of Mojo: Jake (the one who looks like the kid in Two and a Half Men) has discovered Elvis and Johnny Cash, and Rory (who has been in bands with members of Egyptian Hip Hop) has realised the possibilities of dub and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. They've even recorded a cover of Roy Orbison's Crying that reveals the Orb-like quality of Jake's vocals. Most symptomatic of their new direction, they've produced an EP – in Rory's bedroom, which the band affectionately refer to as Dick Ark – that evinces the influence of all the right people. All of This recalls the Beach Boys, only the early-70s incarnation, when the surf was up (as in over), Brian was in bed, and Carl and Dennis Wilson held sway. It's lo-fi and lovely, woozy yet melodic, like a lot of our favourite music, with a hymnal essence that evokes Fleet Foxes and a coda that is pure King Tubby. Shulgin and the Joiner's Arms further essay Hot Horizons' brand of electronic pastorale
