Italian prog-poppers Planet Brain are well worth investigating if glacial modern rock with an adventurous streak yanks your crank. Their latest EP starts in alluring fashion with a serpentine guitar melody over a spattering drum fill, and it's a fine bit of spacious post-rock. I might as well get this out of the way early: vocalist Marcello sounds a lot like Matt Bellamy; in fact, there are moments here you could play to a friend and I'm sure they'd think it was Muse. But hold your horses; if you can look past this doppelganger dilemma, there is much pleasure to be gained from Planet Brain.

Musically, there's a lot of tasteful innovation going on. 'Believe / November / Slowly' tempers its pop melody with stuttering syncopation and nimble leads. 'Yesteryear' is a pounding rocker that, in the chorus at least, breaks away from the dominant style, while 'Send me a Souvenir' boasts a psych guitar squiggle that wouldn't sound out of place on a Three Trapped Tigers song.

There are odd occasions where the vocal histrionics grate a little and I feel the song would be better served by something a little colder; more dispassionate even. I can forgive them this, as for the most part their music is so rich and lovely; a radiant lagoon you just want to dive into.  Not only this, they have a song called 'Gash Discipline', which itself is a great reason to like anyone.