The coming half-term week is topped and tailed by two exciting visiting acts.

On Friday, now in their 17th year of gigging, vintage Ulster industrial/hardcore bruisers Therapy? play their only Welsh gig at Narberth having just completed a European tour.

The following weekend, and getting hotter by the week, one of the most stellar new young bands to come out of Wales in the last few months - The Automatic, from Cowbridge - are heading westwards. Still in their teens, they are signed to B-Unique Records, home to the Kaiser Chiefs with whom they have appeared.

Since I first saw them, in Carmarthen, they have toured extensively, supporting Hard Fi, The Ordinary Boys and GLC.

Now The Automatic are going back to basics with a small venue tour which, luckily for us, takes in the Queens Hall, Narberth, on June 3rd.

I caught up with the band on the second night of the sell-out NME New Music Tour in Cardiff, on the bill with the brilliant Boy Kill Boy (see CD review on page 3).

The Automatic hurtled into their 30 minute set of fidgety, rapid-pulse, electro psycho-pop, from the Baywatch themed intro music to the scaldingly convulsive Recover, via their slightly underwhelming and disappointing last single Raoul, to their explosive sing-along finale.

The Automatic are a clever combination of scampering synths running amok, frenzied guitars and whirring drums, ripped through with bite and wrapped up in big pop ambition, with just enough screeching backing vocals and discordant twitching to keep their indie credibility intact.

Fronted by their gorgeous vocalist Robbie, they are giddily propelled by their hyperactive and neurotically jerky crowd-surfing keyboard player Pennie, who appears to be plugged directly into the mains.

Their trump card is their new single (out June 5th two days after their Narberth gig), the freaky but gripping Monster, with its colossally catchy chorus.

So you'd better start learning "what's that coming over the hill, is it a monster?" now, because, guaranteed, you're going to be singing it for the rest of the summer.

The Automatic won my Lipstick Award for Best Visiting Act in 2005, so, trust me, live, they are unmissable. Make a date with them at The Queens Hall, Narberth, on June 3rd when they will be supported by Carmarthen's Supergene.

MOLL RIGHT: Crowd-pleasing keyboard junkie Pennie of The Automatic.

Picture: Chris Rees.