Another day, another new band that deserves an exclamation mark after their name. Call me a huge pedant, but a surprise doesn’t feel surprising unless there’s the relevant punctuation to ram home the shock. Such are the myriad nuances of life.

Top Surprise! recorded their new EP in their bedrooms – I imagine the drummer was shoved in the bathroom (drummers are always made to record in the bathroom) – over a two day period. This nugget of information is all the justification I need to continue to complain loudly about bands who spend small fortunes over many weeks recording deeply average albums. (Hi, Coldplay!)

So by jangling their fuzzy guitars whilst perched on the porcelain, Top Surprise prove that the important thing is the song – it’s always the song - and everything else is superfluous. A good song sounds good even if it was recorded in a toilet on a Dictaphone and then played over AM radio. So listen to More Than Cool, and tell me if you care how, when and where it was recorded:

Top Surprise // More Than Cool by pugrecs

More Than Cool is exactly not that: endearing, warm and welcoming in approach, satisfyingly crunchy and brief in function. Top Surprise are from Brazil – a country about whose music scene I know very little, but am spurred on to investigate further with each excellent release that shimmies forth, happy, sunny and anxious to please.

Similarly, I know very little about Top Surprise, but am willing to make these simple judgements from theirs songs and their rather endearing photo: They are nice people who make nice music. In an ‘industry’ awash with poseurs and cynicism, perhaps that’s the real shocker.

www.myspace.com/topsurprise