A BEGUILING juggernaut of innovation, the Plastic Mermaids begin their Suddenly Everyone Explodes tour today (Friday), which will take place at 13 venues across 16 days.

The Isle of Wight music scene has recently been churning out acts with the requisite chutzpah to generate global waves; ripples in recent years emanating from the likes of Jazzy Heath, Signals and the Ohmz, all of who have successfully crossed the Solent.

For all the indisputable talent exported from the Island, it is the Plastic Mermaids who are arguably the pre-eminent possessors of the alchemy necessary to allure a further-flung fanbase.

Their music is best described with ambiguity — shifting uneasily as it does with genre — as a sound that free-wheels along the surface of more than a dozen musical styles, refusing to be pigeon-holed.

This is a band that once rowed for more than two hours each way to record the reverberating echoes within a set of caves, as they felt inauthentic replicating the sound they’d heard there previously.

Arriving at the recording studio is — much like their music — an idiosyncratic sensory experience. Set at the childhood home of two of the group’s members, Douglas and Jamie Richards, the humble street view is in stark contrast to a welcoming conservatory brimming with lemon trees and foliage.

Lead singer Douglas said: “This recording studio was my bedroom, when I moved out we needed a studio for the band, so the bed was moved and we set up here.

“Thankfully we have the best neighbours in the world, so they don’t bang the walls or anything.”

The Plastic Mermaids are a five-piece often compared to American rockers, The Flaming Lips, a comparison they don’t take umbrage with, but one that feels discourteously lackadaisical when considering each bands’ respective merits.

The swell of support for the Mermaids continues to expand. Drummer Chris Jones said: “Some of our most passionate supporters come from Middlesbrough, where we played one of our early gigs that went really well.

“People have travelled all the way from the North-East to the Isle of Wight to watch us play and hang out afterwards.

"It’s overwhelming, we really appreciate that support.”

The Suddenly Everyone Explodes tour — the group’s biggest to date — features tracks from the band’s debut LP of the same name, which was released in May, as well as an abundance of other material.

The band revealed singer Floella Grace will join them for the majority of the dates, and the culminating gig in London will feature surprises including a brass band and choir.

Regarding the future, singer, songwriter and merchandise designer, Jamie said: “It took us ten years to get our first LP done, it won’t be another ten before the next.

“The first album is a milestone, I feel like it’ll be a lot easier to put another one out.

“There are probably another three albums that are simmering, we just need to congeal our thoughts into something.”

To book tickets for the tour, or for more information, visit plasticmermaids.com