Los Angeles-based Darker My Love include vocalist/guitarist Tim Presley and vocalist/bassist Rob Barbato - two of the celebrated American "Dudes" who stepped in to assist Mark E Smith in 2006 after the Fall leader's musicians abandoned ship in the American desert. However, DML don't sound remotely like the Fall. With one foot in British psychedelia (Syd Barrett, the Rolling Stones circa 2,000 Light Years From Home) and the other in the pre-shoegazing wave of Brit bands (Loop, Jesus and Mary Chain) they have that brutal drone thing off pat. However, when they hurl sugary hooks into the mix they achieve more than a blissful psychedelic haze. Two Ways Out is a sublime pop single; Pale Sun is almost an effects-laden Beach Boys. Pick of the bunch is Talking Words: a manic pop thrill perfectly packed into three minutes and 14 seconds.