Autokat are the latest band to emerge from the Akoustik Anarkhy Manchester scene that gave a leg up to Nine Black Alps and The Longcut – as well as causing a shortage of the letter ‘k’ across the North West. With debut album Late Night Shopping they launch a sonic assault more akin to The Longcut than their grungy scene-mates. Clearly influenced by post-punkers including Joy Division, Autokat mix indie rock with post rock to create a dark and ultimately impressive debut.
The band has already earned a good deal of praise from the likes of The Guardian and The Independent and you can see why the broadsheets are on board: this is an ambitious, intelligent record. Late Night Shopping has the same cynically urban feel as the likes of Bloc Party (Indeed, the opening notes of first track ‘Shot’ sounds rather similar to ‘Like Eating Glass’ at the start of Silent Alarm) and they wear this firmly on their sleeve. Right from the album’s title (which is apparently in reference to kids going out on the rob at night, not the 24hr Tesco) the claustrophobia of city life is thrust upon you through both sonically and lyrically.
More often than not they get it right, switching effortlessly from punky, dancy guitar music to more elegant post rock. There are highlights throughout, including the layered guitar and thrashy ending of ‘Shot’, the drumming on the slightly more melodic ‘Get Off The Bar’ and the punk vocal of ‘Innocence’ to name three. Elswehere, ‘Seven Years’ is the story of a broken man who is “off his face / without a clue how he’s got here” told with chiming guitars and on ‘Dish Out’ they are at their most like Bloc Party (in a good way). If every song featured the driving guitars and similar vocal style that these songs do, you’d quickly tire of this album. Luckily when Autokat go for more of a post rock sound on the likes of ‘Bowling’ and the broody ‘Fill Your Cup’ they manage to pull that off too. The post punk of ‘Frantic Below’ is a suitably schizophrenic conclusion to an album that straddles genres without losing cohesion.
Sometimes it doesn’t quite work as well. The short phrasing of the lyrics, while necessary for the style of music, means they can verge on the meaningless or throwaway: “A shot / in the dark / comes down / into the city” (‘Shot’), “When you get down on it / I don’t want to know” (‘Fill Your Cup’) or the repetition of “To learn / to live / to love” on ‘The Driver’ for example. Equally, the band suggest that instrumentals ‘Dealy’ and ‘Uber Patriot’ “help the album to breathe” but you can’t help thinking the space could be better used.
What the likes of Bloc Party or Kasabian had on their debuts that Autokat lack is straight up pop songs – there is no ‘Helicopter’ or ‘Banquet’, nothing as radio-friendly as ‘Club Foot’ or ‘L.S.F.’ on Late Night Shopping – but in many ways this is entirely to their credit, as they opt instead for the more challenging. The most obvious example of the ambition of the record is ‘Bowling’. Instead of the middle of the road ballad it could easily have become, it is actually a gorgeous post rock dream of a song.
Recorded and self-produced in their own rehearsal space and guitarist’s front room, Late Night Shopping is an impressive record that just lacks something that would make it a true standout. Perhaps former single ‘Dish Out’ is the perfect example. It is put together well with some great atmospheric backing vocals but just when you expect that soaring chorus to come it never arrives. Nonetheless this is an admirable debut.
****
First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.
The band has already earned a good deal of praise from the likes of The Guardian and The Independent and you can see why the broadsheets are on board: this is an ambitious, intelligent record. Late Night Shopping has the same cynically urban feel as the likes of Bloc Party (Indeed, the opening notes of first track ‘Shot’ sounds rather similar to ‘Like Eating Glass’ at the start of Silent Alarm) and they wear this firmly on their sleeve. Right from the album’s title (which is apparently in reference to kids going out on the rob at night, not the 24hr Tesco) the claustrophobia of city life is thrust upon you through both sonically and lyrically.
More often than not they get it right, switching effortlessly from punky, dancy guitar music to more elegant post rock. There are highlights throughout, including the layered guitar and thrashy ending of ‘Shot’, the drumming on the slightly more melodic ‘Get Off The Bar’ and the punk vocal of ‘Innocence’ to name three. Elswehere, ‘Seven Years’ is the story of a broken man who is “off his face / without a clue how he’s got here” told with chiming guitars and on ‘Dish Out’ they are at their most like Bloc Party (in a good way). If every song featured the driving guitars and similar vocal style that these songs do, you’d quickly tire of this album. Luckily when Autokat go for more of a post rock sound on the likes of ‘Bowling’ and the broody ‘Fill Your Cup’ they manage to pull that off too. The post punk of ‘Frantic Below’ is a suitably schizophrenic conclusion to an album that straddles genres without losing cohesion.
Sometimes it doesn’t quite work as well. The short phrasing of the lyrics, while necessary for the style of music, means they can verge on the meaningless or throwaway: “A shot / in the dark / comes down / into the city” (‘Shot’), “When you get down on it / I don’t want to know” (‘Fill Your Cup’) or the repetition of “To learn / to live / to love” on ‘The Driver’ for example. Equally, the band suggest that instrumentals ‘Dealy’ and ‘Uber Patriot’ “help the album to breathe” but you can’t help thinking the space could be better used.
What the likes of Bloc Party or Kasabian had on their debuts that Autokat lack is straight up pop songs – there is no ‘Helicopter’ or ‘Banquet’, nothing as radio-friendly as ‘Club Foot’ or ‘L.S.F.’ on Late Night Shopping – but in many ways this is entirely to their credit, as they opt instead for the more challenging. The most obvious example of the ambition of the record is ‘Bowling’. Instead of the middle of the road ballad it could easily have become, it is actually a gorgeous post rock dream of a song.
Recorded and self-produced in their own rehearsal space and guitarist’s front room, Late Night Shopping is an impressive record that just lacks something that would make it a true standout. Perhaps former single ‘Dish Out’ is the perfect example. It is put together well with some great atmospheric backing vocals but just when you expect that soaring chorus to come it never arrives. Nonetheless this is an admirable debut.
****
First published on rockfeedback.com. See it here.
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