There is specific moment in which U2 annexed contemporary stadium rock. It came on their fourth album The Unforgettable Fire, and wasn't during the bludgeoning opening bars of "Pride", but instead came with it's sucessor, "Wire". The Irish quartet after all had always dealt in bell ringing gaelic power chords as a direct legacy of their formation in the shards of punk and post-punk, as illustrated by "Gloria", "I Will Follow", "New Year's Day" et al. But with "Wire" producer and self-described non musician Brian Eno demonstrated the truth about their impending breakthough - with greater mastery of texture he'd given the band power and control. In it's pounding tempo but melodic subtlety were the seeds of "Bullet The Blue Sky" and "In God's Country". The rest is immutable history.

So the template for what managed to rouse us at home and inside an aircraft hangar was set. In it's prescient combination of sinew and dream-like ambience, the The Unforgettable Fire still dominates proceedings for the newer generation of somethings to say; Snow Patrol, Coldplay, The Editors. Satellite State it could be argued have been in some way influenced by some or all of these, particularly on the opening track of their eponymous debut EP "Plans", during which the quiet-loud pulse and mood-soaked, ten feet high walls of guitar also serve to recall a grainier Athlete. If the following "Sometimes/Always" is a little formulaic, the closing brother and sister partnership is where things once more become more interesting. "One Small Step" swirls incandescently around a promethean chassis of mountain top reverb and rippling bass, whilst closer "Lights Out" orbits a ghostly field of understated piano and tremelo, a track that somehow sounds monochrome but comes equipped with a thousand black-blue shades in it's darker recesses. In the wrong hands vocalist Gary Nicks single minded conviction could overwhelm, but these are songs which are destined to be events, to be shared. The NME will hate them, but Satellite State on this evidence are capable of becoming the republic's capital.