On the Horizon: Blessed be South Yorkshire, Blessa.

Like The Antlers with Chris Talbot behind the kit, Sheffield's Blessa take something many a band's been touting since the mid-'90s and polish it 'til it resembles something that's both progressive and compellingly propulsive on début demo, Open Fields. Which is, in turn, something of a burnished, and until today to me undiscovered gem in itself. Akin to Bristol's Empty Pools in that flatline throwback style, it sees the five-piece cross-pollinate the crystalline, chorus-laden guitars of The Cure's Faith with a more leaden rhythm section before the track fully blooms with a jangly glisten as they continue to re-digest some of those more halcyon moments musical from bygone decades. A special mention ought to go out to the vocal delivery too, which is equal parts Standell-Preston erraticism and pop smoove. Making Sheffield swell again.

Blessa's Soundcloud.