"Breaking Standing" isn't the best thing on Forward Russia's forthcoming album, but it gives a good idea of what the band are about. It has over-the-top lyrics such as: 'And the hospital board, worried about the law, resisted the urge to contradict anything' and 'I'm in debt to all this legal jargon; these facts and these figures that keep forcing me to go on through the pain'. It's a testament to the band's quality that they can use words like this and never sound like Paul Simon trying to fit too many syllables into a line. Clearly Forward Russia are no ordinary band.

"Breaking Standing (Russell Bloc Party Remix)" is a master class in how to produce a good version. The song is the same, yet different. The vocals are preserved over a layer of elegiac keyboards. Simple guitar riffs add texture. The song gains pace, with a seek and destroy bassline with flies with the accuracy of a missile. Add this to the clatter of drums and you've got an intoxicating ride. Then the ambience returns and the song is no more.

"We Are Grey Matter (Live At Leeds)" shows the heavier, more intense side of the band. Here the vocals move from Bloc Party Indie to At The Drive-In Metal. There's a rawness and a looseness which marks this as different from the recorded original, though it's not a radical re-invention. It gives an exciting insight into what it must be like to be standing in the eye of the hurricane at a Forward Russia gig. This frenetic version makes me wonder again how Tom manages to make such potentially unwieldy lyrics flow so smoothly. My favourite one is: 'I won't accept a puny child; some quick-tongued lizard with a menthol pulse and phony, charming smile. An acquaintance that facile would be an insult to what we have tried to create."