A truly promising artist whose recordings are still in the budget-bedroom-demo stage is as frustrating to one's sense of artistic justice as Natalie Portman modelling in a K-Mart catalogue. You open the thing and wham! You are overwhelmed both by the sheer power of that dark brown gaze, and by the sheer injustice of such quirky, engaging beauty being clothed in a cheap rayon imitation of last season's Sass & Bide signature minidress. "Oh my God," you think, "this enchanting creature should be gently draped in the finest gossamer and painted by Rembrandt, bathed by a soft candlelit glow. Fluorescent studio light?!? Heresy!!!"

So I have a girl-crush on Natalie Portman. Deal with it. Anyway, it mirrors rather well how I feel about this band. They have a quirky and thoughtful originality to them that screams of potential, but their demos are immensely frustrating at first because they also scream "GET ME A PRODUCER AND SOME DECENT STUDIO TIME!" After a few listens, though, you can get past the dodgier bits and appreciate the quality of the music beneath the cheap production, just as you would eventually learn to ignore Natalie's hideous green sequinned top and just get lost in those eyes. (Before you start talking about stripping the music down to its barest essentials to truly appreciate, yada yada - give up. The analogy's over, and you're never going to see Natalie Portman naked.)

Cloud Control are a young Sydney group currently caning it in the USyd Band Competition. Their sound wraps itself in the Fleetwoodesque, shadow-laced guitar harmonies Midlake have been aping so successfully. Their striking male-vs-female vocals (the guy sounds almost Bowie-ish at times) play off each other to great effect, and I squirm in anticipation when I think about what some decent instrumental layering will bring out in their earnest, intelligent pop-rock arrangements - like puzzle pieces, they seem a little irregular on their own but interlock perfectly to form pictures that make you cock your head and squint to see what they're really showing you. Catch them at the Band Comp semis later this month.

Cloud Control - Ashes.mp3
Cloud Control - Community Action.mp3
Cloud Control's MySpace