- Label
- Transgessive
- Release date
- 24th March 2008
- Genre
- Rock
- Buy this album
- Order CD
Compelling debut from young band enamoured with big sounds
The Strokes-led invasion of skinny jeans-wearing, punkish rockers back into the charts led to some interesting reactions from other parts of the musical spectrum - from the punk-funk sound beloved of LCD Soundsystem et al, to the combination of math-rock and post-rock elements with punchy songwriting favoured by Q And Not You and Battles. However, Britain has been a bit slow to catch up - but here, in the hotly-tipped Oxford five-piece Foals, we find a push against this rapidly-stultifying sound as exciting to our ears as the first glut of post-punkers must have been to jaded ex-Sex Pistols acolytes back in the Eighties.
Like the recent Vampire Weekend release, Antidotes combines complex drumming with staccato, spiky guitars - but whereas the New York act meld elements of African music with these to create their sound, Foals tracks like Red Sock Pugie, The French Open and Heavy Water bring in broad electronically-altered arrangements - melancholy, sweeping orchestral noise, sitar-esque analogue synth tones, and filtered, fuzzy basslines to fit behind the chiming guitars and booming rhythms.
More to try: Battles: Mirrored Q And Not U: No Kill, No Beep Beep Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
