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"Mid-State Orange play hypnotic riffs paired with a wild mercury keyboard sound, coming across for all the world like Stereolab would've done at any point in the last ten years, if they'd actually wanted to have a top ten hit." So said Ben Clancy of London's NME. That Stereolab's long-time keyboard player, Morgane Lhote, was guesting for a dozen or so of the Australian band's recent London shows and recordings wasn't lost on him.

Mid-State Orange's new EP, Flag Festival, is versatile, hook-laden and utterly compulsive. The bouncy mid-pace of the title track and The Boy Who Dropped His Omelette gives an overall light-hearted feel to the EP, often masking the emotional content of the songs. Their sound is also bittersweet country music when it wants to be, torn between deep despair and dark romance, as found in songs like So Hard.

A collision of 80s indie pop guitars, 70s synths and 60s grooves, Mid-State Orange were formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1999. Four of their debut US EP's six tracks were recorded in London last year, after Mid-State Orange's founder members, Louis Richter and Ryan Merry, landed in England with their guitars and a bunch of new songs. They reformed the band with friends and acquaintances, captivating audiences everywhere with their unexpected sounds and brand new freshness.

Mid-State Orange today are Louis Richter, guitar, vocals; Ryan Merry, bass; Justin Hamilton, guitar; Tim Spelman, keyboards and Jonathan Edmonds, drums. Collaborators Christian Merry, Morgane Lhote and American Tim Lochmaier often making appearances at Northern hemisphere shows.

The essential idiosyncrasy and quirky originality Mid-State Orange display on stage is perfectly captured on Flag Festival.