For anyone, like myself, who spent an inordinate amount of time, running around the country following FORWARD RUSSIA, then their sudden derailment in 2008 came as something of anti-climax.

Labouring under the weight of the marvellously awkward and sometimes sparse second album ‘Life Processes’, the band had (put in relationship terms) simply grown apart. Announcing an indefinite hiatus last summer, that was the last I heard from guitarist Whiskas for a while. But then I bumped into him in Manchester a few weeks back, bearing this: new material from a project he’s calling HONOUR BEFORE GLORY.

Featuring guest appearances from ‘folk chanteuse’ Fran Rogers, not to mention various Leeds associates (Duels, I Like Trains etc) HBG is a great, naturally tentative and atmospheric piece of work. It’s like Bernard Sumner without the baggage or New Order’s Other Two, but with flowers in their hair. The two best tracks from the demos are available now: ‘Broken Bottles, Empty Hearts’ from his own Honourbeforeglory.com site and ‘Lions’ which you can find below. A live gig in Leeds follows in January.

Jump to his HBG website here