One Track Mind

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London indie quartet Scanners first made a name for themselves with 2006’s Violence Is Golden, winning over listeners with their electronic tinctured rock riffs and spunky, female-fronted vocals. Since then, the band has shared the stage with acts including Electric Six, The Horrors, The Charlatans, and The Wedding Present and recorded album number two. Their sophomore record, Submarine, will be released by Dim Mak in February of 2010; “Salvation” is slated to be the record’s first track.

Beginning with a somber, lo-fi acoustic guitar lick, the song is soon given body by Sarah Daly and some ominous keys. The song really picks up steam when the whole band joins in for a primal set of backing harmonies, sounding as solemn and foreboding as a pack of animals getting ready to go in for a kill. The comparisons here are fairly obvious–the bold femme fatale swagger of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the synth-spiked melodies of The Sounds’ more guitar-rooted tunes–but Scanners offer enough originality to preserve their unique identity. “Salvation” builds to an intense finale, culling together the various musical motifs which have been introduced throughout and ending with what is either a bleak threat or a lover’s final promise: “I’ll take you to my grave.”