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The Castillians, Brummies who formed in 2010, like their blues abrasive and slightly painful to listen to, if the 11 scratchy songs on their second album You & Me are typical.

But you can’t help but twitch a buttock or two in response to the irreverent, anarchic music. Sure, songs such as Hey Hey and Midnight Ride aren’t what you’d call heavily produced, with a garage guitar sound and distorted vocals, but damn they’re persuasive, and Hang Me Out is an obvious hit, all hummable chorus and infectious, Motown-influenced beat.

There’s a degree of subtlety in more laid-back tunes like Come What May, a slow-blues grind, and Still In Love With You, a wall-of-sound wail, but generally The Castillians are about pummelling listeners into submission.

Joel McIver is a British author. The best-known of his 25 books to date is the bestselling Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica, first published in 2004 and appearing in nine languages since then. McIver's other works include biographies of Black Sabbath, Slayer, Ice Cube and Queens Of The Stone Age. His writing also appears in newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian, Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Rolling Stone, and he is a regular guest on music-related BBC and commercial radio.