Having put Indonesian Junk on hold, Daniel James resurrected his old punk band Chinese Telephones in 2024. At the point where it seemed that might be his main focus for a while, the ever restless musician appeared with a new band The Daniel James Gang at the beginning of 2025. Their debut EP mixed garage rock with power pop and a pinch of proto-punk to deliver something high on energy, and occasionally even bigger on grit. The material didn’t all work to the musicians’ best advantage – ‘Misery’ (written before the Gang were in place) – felt as if James were just marking time, looking for new inspiration, but the title cut ‘Darkness Over This Town’ introduced far more of a power pop influence than James had explored before, and this lean towards broader melodies really helped most of the new material to stand out.

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