Novacaine emerged from Newport, Wales at the time that the Music Press were rather dubiously dubbing it 'the new Seattle'. Comparisons with their hometown confederates The Manic Street Preachers were totally misguided; their early outright punk material (these singles were complied togther for 'Frustration No. 10') was explosive snarling, blood-curdling tour de force anthems of punk rage, calculated to leave any listener shot to pieces. Novocaine were awesome and stood head and shoulders above anything thrown up that new wave of British Punk Rock, like the 60 Foot Dolls. The track 'Pond Life' which was show-cased on Volume magazine, was epic and caught a punk band in musical transition by the time of their first album proper, Novocaine were still playing raucous punk rock but soaked in American and more traditional rock influences. Only by the time Novocaine had metamorphosed and re-emerged as Vel-Tone (see Do-Little Records), could any better than The Manics comparisons be meaningfully drawn.