Released this week (17th March), Dexters have offered the world its debut album ‘Shimmer Gold’. Packed full of Kinks and Ray Davis inspired lyrics, the album combines bygone semantics with an optimistic indie sound to bridge the gap between ‘good-old’ and ‘good-modern’.

Promoted with a confidence and a sense of pride in their accomplishment, the band has described the album as “a step-up”, comprised of “11 big tracks” that seems to have been used as a way of demonstrating the bands’ versatility stylistically.

The title-track – ‘Shimmer Gold’ – for example, captures essences of progressive-rock, the overall modernist indie and even bit of country/ blues with the addition of a harmonica. In contrast, the more heavy ‘They’re Blind’ doesn’t digress too far from the stylistic tone of the band and its music, but it does feel like the juxtaposition has been placed intentionally as if to say “hey, look what we can do.”

Having already supported The Courteeners, the link between the two bands is apparent, ‘Recover’ being a good illustration of this. Described as being “packed with indie-rock beats”, this song is upbeat, catchy and repetitive, and given that it has a week before the album, it almost serves as a synecdochic taster for ‘Shimmer Gold’ as a whole.

One of the most important features of Dexters is the influence that story-telling has had on their work; the Kinks, for instance, tend to be poetic in structure and composition, making them an ideal inspiration, but frontman Tom Rowlett has also cited first-hand experiences as important in developing this, claiming that “our songs are our stories and tales”.

Dexters seem thoroughly convinced that their time is now, and whether or not that may be the case, they are backing it up with a string of almost non-stop gigs up and down the country through March and April, ending in The Garage in London on the 5th April.

As mentioned previously, by and large artists tend to conform to either small venues or big venues, and a lot of that is down to the act itself. This quintet are undoubtedly a festival band. Regardless of personal taste, for the ambience alone, the high-energy, high-enthusiasm seems best fitting for hazy days in a field somewhere wearing fluorescent paint and a dodgy fedora, as opposed to smaller venues in which it may feel constrained.

It may seem appropriate, therefore, that as well as The Mighty Boof festival in May, this August Dexters are playing alongside Goldie Lookin Chain and The Rifles at the Strawberry Fields festival – a relatively new farmland festival in rural Leicestershire that has been a host to the likes of Example, The Twang and Hadouken!.

The band has already received praise from NME and certain red-tops, and with any luck, through the new album and tour lined-up, should receive the widespread recognition that they’ve worked so hard for over the last two and a half years.