Cherbourg purport to be part of the same thriving London folk scene that has produced the likes of Laura Marling and Noah and The Whale, Into The Dark provides a taster of a band that have perhaps grander ambitions.It's true that folk infuses much of their sound but this is amped up, life or death, dark night of the soul stuff rather than sweet little love songs. This isn't just big music for the sake of it though and there is a well honed song writing sensibility evident on each of the EPs four tracks. There is a wonderfully realised sense of sobriety about opening track 'Man', Andrew Davie's voice is the focal point but never has to bellow to fight for attention, and as a blitz of violin heralds one more rousing chorus the whole band join in to sing “now I'm a man am I?”,And rousing chori seem to be a feature, 'Goldmine' features another that could be a camp-fire special and is very much the sound of being wrapped up safe, warm and wistful on a cold night.'Let Yourself' is perhaps the strongest song on the EP, building from the opening voice and guitar to a beautifully emotive close and featuring some gorgeously haunting e-bowed guitar and backing vocals, Davie is once again on top form, all but the emotionally numb will be drawn in.'Shine' closes the EP and is the folkiest of the four, a fiddle led ballad that falls more into the nu-folk genre and is a pleasant enough number is not quite as daring and dramatic as what has gone before.Cherbourg are listed as being unsigned on their myspace page, this is either because no one has been astute enough to sign them up yet (unlikely?) or because they know they can do it better themselves (more likey). It doesn't really matter though, as long as they're able to keep producing and releasing I'm happy and after this an appetite for a full length release is certainly whet. 78%Cherbourg on Myspace