Soaked in lager and phase pedals, The Things We Make goes beyond shoegazing; it's more like shoetransfixion, and these five British guys rack up some enormous chiropractor bills. Their dizzying churn pushes against the back of your skull like narcotics, and their necks snap and pop in sinewy sounds after a concert. They're the type of guys that would secretly affix paperback novels to the tops of their shoes in order to get some quality reading in during shows.

Though not particularly noisy, and thankfully not pure, ecstacy- fried Manchester pop, Six By Seven brew thick, foggy, droning tunes. "European Me," a track previewed on their self- titled EP, captures the stark, grey landscapes of German vampire films as a slide guitar wavers like wind through a windowcrack. Six by Seven work in drunk repitition, so predictably, The Things We Make plays best late into the night after five pints of cider. "Candlelight" flashes back to the baggy pants and fisherman hats of Stone Roses- era modern rock, and "For You" actually breaks into doo- doo- doos, but the album's other songs strongly intoxicate. They sound like Spiritualized and Swervedriver if they were really, really tired and trying to keep it down as to not wake the neighbors.

So, not a perfect record, but everyone should have one of these 4am, post- bar- hopping discs to slip on as you disrobe before crashing asleep. Whatever you do, don't attempt to aerobicize to this record; you'll be found standing slumped forward, arms dangling by your legwarmers.

-Brent DiCrescenzo

"European Me"

[Real Audio Stream]