For those Britpop fans not aware of S*M*A*S*H you can be forgiven. The band was never really part of the Britpop scene as such, along with These Animal Men they formed the backbone of the genre described as New Wave of New Wave. This minor scene was doing its thing under the radar of the general public but continually documented by the weekly music press around the time that Britpop exploded into life. S*M*A*S*H did appear on Top of the Pops once playing Shame which technically wasn’t even released as a single but part of an EP. They might have been the first band to achieve this and they might well be the last. As protagonists of the new wave of new wave, S*M*A*S*H borrow some of the old, add some of the new — and then slam it all into a wall at 60 mph, stepping back to admire their handiwork. Cutting out the pop centre Self Abused is much harsher, both musically and lyrically than their previous EP. The album blusters along on a distorted bass bottom and scaly guitar aggression. (Think the Stranglers and Gang of Four fed through a Steve Albini noise processor, although Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine is also a relevant comparison.) For all its superficial discouragement, however, Self Abused is considerably better than it appears: Borrie’s voice, when he isn’t roaring, is light and appealing, and the songs’ melodies and ideas are worth digging through. Besides dropping references to Sir David Attenborough, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, the Starship Enterprise and the Brontës, the literate band works over culture politics in “Bang Bang Bang (Granta 25)” and personal challenges in “Altruism,” which promises “If my dreams aren’t realized / I’m a future suicide / But I’m still alive.”