What with the current excitement being generated by the new Scouse crop such as The Coral, The Bandits and The Zutons and the masterful re-emergence of wayward geniuses Shack, could there be a better time to herald the arrival of an unmissable collection from maybe THE great lost Liverpool band, THE WILD SWANS?

Seeing as they only recorded one single during their brief lifetime - the damn-near perfect "Revolutionary Spirit"/ "God Forbid", financed, produced and drummed upon exquisitely by the late, great Bunnymen drummer Pete De Freitas - you'd wonder why the MK1 line-up of the band would be causing your reviewer to foam uncontollably around the mouth, but as CD1 of "Incandescent" makes abundantly clear, The Wild Swans had more where the mercurial rush of the single came from. Indeed, twenty years down the line, I think it's still accurate to say the nine songs here (including the single's two cuts that lead off) represent what could/ should have become one of rock's landmark debut albums.

We'll get to the details shortly, but first some background for the uninitiated, which will basically be anyone who doesn't remember the Liverpool scene in the post-punk times that spawned the Teardrop Explodes, Wah! and The Bunnymen or read 'SOUNDS' in late '81/ early '82. The Wild Swans comprised vocalist/ songwriter Paul Simpson, keyboard player Gerard Quinn (both former members of the Teardrop Explodes), plus guitarist extraordinaire Jeremy Kelly. They went through drummers and (especially) bassists like most of us have hot dinners,