Throbbing, pulsating, dark, deep-voiced indie post-punk pop with a double-edged theme and an 80s goth-rock feel in this fifth LP in a decade by the Manchester quartet known for delivering exciting gigs. With extensive touring under their belts, Adam Houghton (vocals, guitar), Mat Peters (guitar, synthesizer keyboards), Andy Keating (bass), and Joel Kay (drums) make a tight unit and their style, somewhere between New Order and Sisters of Mercy, musically and visually, has a black-and-white unblinking appreciation of life’s inevitable ups and downs. As they put it: “There is a lot of beauty and romance in the world but it's also full of danger and violence. Our lives as musicians and artists is at times so rewarding but we walk the tightrope of being able to release our art into the world and it potentially coming crashing down the next day if freedom of expression is curtailed, as it is in lots of places, or if people just don't like your latest output. One day we could be touring and taking our music all over the world and the next we could be looking for a job. We wanted the artwork to encapsulate this paradox - something elegant and eye-catching whilst inherently dangerous and provocative.” Their songs mix optimism and menace. Contrast for example, the atmospheric, shadowy sense foreboding of powerful opener I Am The Fear with its keyboards and shard-like guitars, or the Peter Hook-ish bass and clever keyboards of Makes No Difference (“It makes no difference what you say / All this will surely fade away / I just can't sit and watch / I am hopeless for your loving touch”) or the obsessiveness of unrequited love in Warning Signs (“You should be the one, the one who holds me near/ Exorcise thе demons, the dark thoughts that I fear”) to the joy and optimism of later track Obligations: “You are the brightest light / You are a symphony / A symbol of the good that′s left in me / You are what's left of hope”, a fabulously catchy new wave dance number with meaty, fat bass and synths and gentle. Song for Someone, is a gentler, slower number with washes of synths and Houghton’s deep vocals that encapsulate a bittersweet farewell. Awash with voluminous sound, an album that delivers power with thematic fragility, dynamism with an industrious energy. Out on their label Kind Violence Records. Tour dates here.
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