A Week in Records: Destroyer, Kagoule, Radkey

From Dan Bejar's exhilarating E Street homage to the snarling return of Sheffield techno anarchists The Black Dog, we run down five releases out today

Feature by Music Team | 21 Aug 2015

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Destroyer – Poison Season [Dead Oceans]

How do you follow a masterpiece? You go ahead and make another one. That’s been Dan Bejar’s tactic anyway, with his latest Destroyer release reflecting and extending the high-gloss beauty of 2011’s career peak Kaputt, and taking several more strides down an increasingly peerless musical path. <<read more>>

Kagoule – Urth [Earache]

There's so much craft and character in evidence on this invigorating debut from the Nottingham trio. Picking the bones out of the early 90s US alt scene is easy meat, of course, but shaping it beyond low stakes tribute into something with identity of its own is a challenge shirked by the herd. Kagoule could pass, at first glance, for one of the many lost underground acts from, say, Boston or Washington state's glory years. But riding on the back of a growing live reputation, they turn their noses up at the originals' leftovers. <<read more>>

The Black Dog – Neither/Neither [Dust Science]

Sheffield's The Black Dog are as politically "fucking furious" as ever, the track titles on their 12th album doubling as a hit list. Their latest targets are 'truthers', 'hollow heads' and Them', the pitiless fear mongers and pedlars of disinformation they accuse of perpetuating chronic societal uncertainty. Being an instrumental techno outfit, their music functions not to explicate their views on modern day psychological oppression but to measure its emotional toll – and the results are compellingly bleak. <<read more>>

Advance Base – Nephew In The Wild [Tomlab]

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone's Owen Ashworth returns to his Advance Base moniker for a second album, following 2012’s A Shut-In’s Prayer. The electro sheen of his previous incarnation still lingers, but for all the schmancy electronics on display, country is the order of the day, all slow-burning chord progressions with a heavy hearted resignation underpinning his second-person narratives. <<read more>>

Radkey – Dark Black Makeup [Little Man]

When Radkey emerged from their bedrooms circa 2010, the three teenage brothers from Missouri were hailed by many as punk rock prodigies. But are they the next big thing, or merely a punk Hanson? Dark Black Makeup, their first LP, is a collection of garage punk blasts that cement what the hype already told us – that Radkey do very competent, energetic retro rock. There’s an inevitable paint-by-numbers feel though, as though the brothers are instinctively mimicking the punk rock greats of old with little consideration for innovation. <<read more>>