In days of old alternative rock was the preserve of penniless beardies with body odour.

Thanks to the likes of Mansun, it's a commercially viable genre with as many dedicated followers of its fashions as pop does.

Enter Kardomah, a five-piece from Neath who play anthemic alt-rock with great style, loads of panache and some guts.

Their latest demo, a single called Star Tonite, is on the beautiful side of rock with serious riffs, ambient keyboards and accomplished harmony vocals.

The psychedelic roar of the opening track, Star Tonite, takes off where Dark Star faltered on the launch pad.

The vocals are doctored and the riffing introspective. Big chords and choruses abound, pulsing wah-wah-fuelled solos soaring heavenward before Kardomah come down with the melancholic Next Generation Nemesis.

This is a power ballad in the most tasteful meaning of the phrase. It's seriously impressive - a classic even.

Abort/Rety/Fail is their demo's heaviest four minutes and alludes to a more MTV-friendly, heavy rock direction.

Kardomah seem to have an uncanny knack of expanding their sound at all the right points.

The band took its name from a Dylan Thomas book about the Kardomah boys, who were a group of Swansea poets and artisans who used to often meet at the Kardomah caf in Swansea.

Their press release claims members of Slade are fans (why have they told me this?), The Crocketts (now split) and Aerogramme.

They have been developing their spacey sound for a year and have played a string of gigs in and around Neath, Cardiff, Caerphilly, Bristol, London and Glasgow.

* Kardomah are currently booking dates for September details of which can be found at their website: www.kardomah.org.uk