Whenever an album from a band you’ve never heard of plops on to your desk, it always makes the first listen that extra bit special. Will it be raging punk, diced up electro or something totally different?

Sometimes it’s that little bit harder to listen to a band when you already have high expectations of them following their previous releases. If anything Radiohead suffered from this when they released Ok Computer – for an album like that to be hailed as one of the best of the nineties, it was always going to be hard for them to match it with the wobbled electronic sound on Kid A.

But you can sometimes deduce elements of a band’s personality before even listening to their CD. Scanning the track titles, it’s clear Trinitron Meets the Mars People want to have fun and aren’t exactly naming that many songs after real life, heartfelt events. The Fawn Took My Shoes, and Now I Need Blues Clues and Bear Grylls Ate My Fuckin’ Turtle made us spit tea across our keyboards when we read them, for example.

But before assuming they were some sort of novelty comedy act with wacky names, it was best to let the music do the talking.

Hailing from the sunny shores of California, this six-piece offers a slab of mostly instrumental music that doesn’t nail itself down to any particular genre. Throughout the 48 minute album, we are offered all sorts of sounds that constantly spit and do battle with each other as every separate hook, drum kick and cymbal crash aims to come out on top.

Is it a hectic and busy sounding record? Yes. But unlike conventional music, it means there is more going on, giving the music more in the way of longevity and letting you pick up new aspects, even on repeated listens. There’s none of this three minute single guitar riff before a note on a keyboard is brought in stuff going on.

Sounding somewhere between the beauty of Mogwai and the determination of 65daysofstatic, with the psychedelic & trippy old heroin-sounding Flaming Lips floating around somewhere in the background, the album definitely makes for interesting listening.

The major problem for an album that is mostly non-lyrical is how to keep it interesting, with a lot of instrumental music failing to develop any sort of flowing structure. Instead, we are normally subjected to a half-baked idea that may have sounded good in rehearsal failing to transfer to an album.

Hey Stop Stealing Monkeys is the album’s longest track, clocking in at just under eight minutes. Slightly fearful that the song was going to be a few ideas looped around, it was a relief to hear a lot of sounds chucked in to a massive musical pan, shook up and let loose. From build ups to breakdowns, the song keeps on going off on different paths and steers clear of being dull and repetitive.

Spacey, trippy sounds echo around the speakers when The Hungry Mouse Caught His Tail On The Pantry Door comes out to play. Its warped retro eight bit sound is somewhere between being stuck in a videogame full of singing lollypop trees whilst being trapped by some satanic demon in the underbelly of hell itself.

To date only one song from the band has featured any singing - Ah Haaha Ha Goes The Hilarious Hyena features vocals from keyboardist/keys man Anthony. His particular vocal style matches the up tempo frenzied pace of the music. While it does sometimes feel bedded underneath the song, it at least demonstrates that the group can successfully add further elements to their already winning formula of instrumental music.

One more reason why we like this album is due to the zero mentions of the band coming from bloody California. If it isn’t the Red Hot Chili Peppers slipping in a mention every other song to boost up tourist numbers, it’s some sort of rapper based on the west coast of America spitting rhymes about South Central and all that crap. We know that people are proud to represent where they come from, but sometimes it’s better to keep the mentions to a minimum. And let’s not mention that bloody song off The OC.

It’s also time for hecklerspray’s insertion of a crap pun: the band are from a brilliantly named place called Walnut, because of this we can sum up the album as cracking.

You know, because you crack open walnuts… oh never mind. Go buy the album.

The debut release from Trinitron Meets The Mars People is out now. For song samplers and ordering information visit TMTMP on Myspace