This is a review of "Critical Resistance EP" recorded by Indicator. The review was written by Richard Garnett in 2002.

Right here's a frightening thing... a 16 year-old with the voice of a 46-year-old man who's smoked woodbines all his life and drinks 10 pints of Trophy a night down the social. What's also astonishing is the tight and mature sound sprayed out by this very young Yeadon band (16,16,16,14???). Usually when I have heard or seen a band of such minor years playing punk/rock the story always seems to be the same: "Give 'em a few years and if they realise that no-one wants to hear their 9 minute fret wanking epics or listen to a bastard child of The Offspring and Limp Wrislet then they'll do ok."

NOT SO in the case of Indicator. This is as good as it gets old-school punk, and like an appreciation of past masters, it has all the growl of early Rancid and the British rawk of the likes of The Exploited.

To be fair, there is little you can do wrong from a song writing point of view when churning out this high octane stuff - keep every song well under 3 minutes: CHECK, shout a lot especially the backing vocals: CHECK, swear whenever it seems appropriate: CHECK, play all you instruments at maximum velocity and make point of the fact by putting in lots of stops to show how tight you are: CHECK.

Is it worth mentioning any of the 7 song titles? Not really, they all pound away and make for a sharp short and gritty musical ride. But if your interested 'Full of Fear' and 'Realise' are the band's best moments and hopefully indicates (sorry couldn't resist) what the future holds in store. Occasionally the formula gets a little weary and some variation might help, but when you're 16... hey! Screw the variation.

At the moment Indicator's fan base are young enough to go to every gig, jump around, plus enjoy the novelty of getting away with drinking in pubs. Where as for most bands the audiences dwindle as they age, if Indicator keep playing with such maturity and heart they are sure to find an audience beyond the purely pubescent.