Listening to Kill It Kid for the very first time conjures up images of some deep south Americana outfit, all toothless grins and whisky soaked heartbreak, you'd imagine this band to hail from some backwater town down by the Mississippi. So learning that Kill It Kid are a bunch of fresh faced youngsters from Bath comes as something of a shock, the heady mixture of Tom Waits, Seasick Steve, Allison Krauss and Robert Johnson influences at the very least giving this outfit a fresh sounding musical take in 2009.

Closest comparisons are perhaps Gomez, Kill It Kid indulging in similar sounding Americana tropes and gravel throated melodicism, vocalist Chris Turpin sounding for all intents and purposes like the grizzled offspring of Tom Waits, Ben Ottewell and Seasick Steve.

New single HEAVEN NEVER SEEMED SO CLOSE is a bluesy bluster of slide guitar licks, flailing riffs, heady strings and frantic drum stomps. Turpin growls and hollers his way through proceedings, wringing forceful melodies from the ether as the rest of the band grinds its way through proceedings, part Grinderman, part Tom Waits backing band. The acoustic flips side MY LIPS WON'T BE KEPT CLEAN, sees Turpin duetting with Stephanie Ward, another vocalist whose style suggests a definite Americana influence; the duo sparking off each other in fine style amidst delta blues string surges and roughly strewn guitar chords.

HEAVEN NEVER SEEMED SO CLOSE introduces Kill It Kid as a band certainly doing there own thing, a breath of fresh air these days; and as such this is highly recommended stuff.