Last year, the Tampa Bay’s own singer, songwriter and producer extraordinaire, Shawn Kyle, was tapped to play with Baltimore-DC area rock band AMFMS and in the months that followed, he’s flexed his frontman swagger and guitar chops with them amid touring the country and stirring up a rising buzzfire of media interest.

January saw the release of their Captives EP via Kyle’s Warm and Alive imprint, and it proves a compelling representation of what these five guys (Kyle plus drummer Matt Rose, bassist Sam Wetterau, guitarist Kitt Whitacre and multi-instrumental Brandon McBride) have to offer: fierce and potent rock n’ roll dosed in post-punk, psychedelic, garage, grunge and glam influences.

From the roiling washes of guitars and hazy shoe-gazy vocals in the title track, to the urgently dark and driving moodiness and exotic guitar-percussive interplay of “The Girl,” the songs are tightly-composed scorchers, though the obvious highlight is “Teenage Fight Song,” an anthemic single of shuffling dance-bopping rhythms, reverbed and fuzzed guitar riffs, and cooing multi-voice backing chorales that are a bright counterpart to Kyle’s huskier howls. A rather fine first outing, indeed.

Critics’ Rating: 4 out of 5 stars