While impossibly cool London art-punk squad Ikara Colt impatiently begins work on its second album, North America continues a game of catch-up begun earlier this year with Epitaph's domestic re-release of the band's 2002 debut, Chat And Business LP.

Next up: The five-song (plus one video) EP Basic Instructions (Fantastic Plastic/Epitaph), a brisk, swaggering second helping of the pugilistic pop and thrash Chat And Business offered most thrillingly in bulk. Ikara Colt wears its influences on its sleeves --- much fun can be had by adopting Ian Curtis' voice and intoning "Radio, live transmission..." whenever the bass lines come to the fore on the Chat cut "May B 1 Day" and the grim, buzzing juggernaut "Don't They Know."

But the band's spastic, bash-`til-it-bleeds attack, raw guitars (check Claire Ingram's buzzsaw riffing on the appropriately titled "Panic") and generally confrontational manner carry the day nonetheless. The taut, hissing electro-rock remix of "May B 1 Day" included here, meanwhile, might actually manage to outstrip the other tracks in pure tension.

You were warned.

BEN RAYNER
POP MUSIC CRITIC
www.thestar.com