Until Spring

London's much-hyped Wild Palms (formerly Ex Lion Tamers), nourished on a diet of Beefheart, The Fall, Can, and Echo & The Bunnymen, bring a ferocious sonic ambition and appetite for forward progression to their moody, spiky guitar-based rock on their accomplished new album, Until Spring. With a restlessly charismatic frontman and a virtuosic, Billy Childish-acolyte guitarist, Wild Palms have the dark staccato of classic post-punk well in hand, but bring so much more to the table than the current crop of Wire also-rans. Their carefully-focused songs find burnished warmth bolstering the classic drama enough to encompass moments of soundscape sublimity.