Press play and Spinors come in like someone has kicked open a factory door during a power cut. "Choose to Believe" has grease on its hands, bright lights in its eyes, and a hook that knows exactly how to get a crowd moving. This is alternative rock with a steampunk coat, but the engine underneath is very current: post-truth panic, social media loops, shiny consumer...

Before listening to a single note of Suris’ new album, “Pertinax”, I spent a few minutes just looking at the word. Pertinax. It has the distinct ring of a Stoic philosopher’s last defiant utterance or maybe a type of beetle known for its unusually stubborn shell. What a curious flag to fly for a collection of songs in an age of fleeting distraction. But...