KYSHERA, who played their debut gig last night, are centred on the song-writing talent of Cwmbran's James Kennedy.

James first featured in Mono over a year ago when he released his solo demo Made In China.

After Mono's article it was demo number one on the BBC Unsigned Chart for six weeks and won demo of the month in many magazines including Total Music Magazine.

Its eclectic mix of pretty much everything drew a great deal of record industry interest and for a while James concentrated on pursuing that and getting a band together at the expense of writing new material.

The line-up of Kyshera has changed several times but now stands at James on guitar and vocals, Francis Peel on drums and Matt Jones on bass.

When the band plays they also trigger samples. The material they have written contrasts starkly with that of Made In China, which incorporated every kind of weirdness.

Songs like Embargo still have a kind of strangeness but the bizarre, dazzling effects have gone, replaced by a more languid rock. It's quite similar to Tetra Splendour who, alas, never sold enough of their wonderful records like Muriel's Motorhome to warrant EMI keeping them on the books.

James' voice is strong and perhaps he practised in the same valley as James Dean Bradfield once upon a time.

The band plough through complicated chord structures that Rocketgoldstar and all that are prog might appreciate.

They are soon to release an album which promises to do well. Live, the band are mixing songs from the two and each benefit from the other's company, setting off as they do their mutual strengths. After TJ's last night they hope to perform as much as possible and dates will be published here and at www.kyshera.com and www.kyshera.co.uk which also have MP3s.