Foals - Antidotes

Transgressive

Look up this year’s edition of the Collins English Dictionary, and beside the word “zeitgeist” you might just find a picture of Foals. Exploiting both the post-Battles hunger for musical sophistication and the nation’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for danceable indie, the Oxford five-piece have got everything to sate the modern music fan’s appetite. Their propulsive drum patterns ride on some intricate underlying percussion, bar chords are banished to the cobwebbed closet marked “lad rock” in favour of some elaborate high-fret interplay, and both vocals and lyrics are oblique, but curiously affecting.

Despite the complexity, there is no fat here; everything is crisp and essential, every move dictated not just by the brain but by the record’s thumping, dark pop heart. Thus the knotty, chiming guitars, gang chants and atonal brass skronk of glorious lead single ‘Balloons’ are anchored by infectious new wave high hats, funky bass and a fantastically whimsical chorus line: “We fly balloons on this fuel called love.” Likewise, the breakbeat-led ‘Red Socks Pugie’ would shuffle off into oblivion without the addictive, spidery guitar line which explodes into life for its refrain.

The carefully-controlled swell of ‘Big Big Love’ relies on subtle, half-hidden synth repetitions beneath its growing surface tension, while cascading guitar melodies slice through the ululating wail of ‘Olympic Airways’ just when it threatens to become overwhelming. Foals’ first steps have quickly become a gallop; best saddle up before the rush. Lee Gorman

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DOWNLOAD: ‘BALLOONS’, ‘OLYMPIC AIRWAYS’, ‘TWO STEPS, TWICE’.
FOR FANS OF: MODEST MOUSE, BLOC PARTY, BATTLES.

Issue #50 - The Power To Know

Featuring The Top 50 NI Songs of Our Lifetime, The Streets, Deerhoof, Seasick Steve, Fucked Up, Garth Ennis and more.