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Some bands come at you from an unexpected direction. Sometimes, there just isn't a recognisable niche that you can slot them into. The Mighty Boosh's invention of crimping would be one - admittedly leftfield - example of this sort of genre busting.

But whilst Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt were lauded for their comic creativity, more musical genre-spanners often struggle for exposure simply because they are so hard to categorise.

Yorkshire-based four-piece Maia describe their music as 'rocking, harmonic psychedelic sci-fi folk'. It's a description which poses as many questions as it answers - what is sci-fi folk after all?

Having released two albums and an EP and becoming regulars on the festival circuit, Maia are in danger of slipping into that obscure, ill-defined space where talented musicians go when they don't manage to make a major breakthrough.

Maybe that uncertain place in the musical universe is where Maia belong. Off-beat and quirky are their stocks in trade - there is a sense that they are happy playing in the margins. Lyrics that play randomly with ideas like Living in an Alligator, Pepper Stars (title of their second album) and the splendidly rhythmical Zuma Alluma (Saturn's Patterns anyone?) make for a cheerful fusion of the poetic, the fantastical and the musically magical.

https://youtu.be/G1SBQ1udYno

Their lyrics may slide seamlessly from the sort of mundane misery of a misplaced lottery ticket to an almost hymnal celebration of the natural world - In the Springtime is a beautiful, whimsical little song that shows off the band's rich harmonies as well as their undoubtedly original, witty - and highly polished - song writing verve.

https://youtu.be/mEj2BB0pn9M

Whether or not Maia make it big, you sense, is unimportant. What you take away from listening to their work is the sense that the world - for all its disappointments - is a delicately beautiful place, just as it is. For that reason alone, it's worth taking the time to check them out. They may not be as funny as The Mighty Boosh, but they don't pretend to be. And they really are like nothing else out there.