JANE Murphy moved west from Leeds, Paul Williams migrated east from Liverpool, joining up in Manchester in 1999 with a mutual love for early Postcard missives from Orange Juice, pre-Technique New Order and the cinematic strings of John Barry.

They write, arrange and produce epic pop, a blissful union of pretty melodies, Vitamin C guitars and keyboards, leaping trumpets, pointed lyrics and Murphy's sunlit Sixties' vocals. You could not say they were original; Saint Etienne and Dubstar, Terry Hall and Cinerama have passed this way before but debut album The Falls marks the bright birth of these new Northern lights.

Fellow debutantes Saloon, from Reading, are schooled in classical pop designs too, albeit a spikier fusion of swirling electronic and acoustic sounds, notably the spectral viola and melodica of Alison Cotton and symphonic mood playing of Adam Cresswell. Amanda Gomez's singing is as soft and fragrant as a rose-petal bed, in not only English but French and Spanish too when and where the mood takes her. If Snowblind suit daytime coastal driving, then Saloon belong to the can't sleep, won't sleep early hours.

Charles Hutchinson

Updated: 09:49 Thursday, August 22, 2002