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blackinternational indebt
Artist: Black International
Title: In Debt
Genre: Post Punk / Pop
Release Date: 13th April 2012
Label: Spiralchords Records


Album Review

Sometimes, it’s the details that can raise an average band to the level of being really rather good. Not that BLACK INTERNATIONAL are average, but they’d not have grabbed my attention nearly as forcefully as they did if it wasn’t for the rugged, ragged bass sound. It really drives the opening track, ‘A Million Mouths’, a roaring blast of alt. rock with a punk edge. They sure as hell don’t sound like a two-piece, creating a sound that’s dense and solid. Recorded with the assistance of renowned Glasgow engineer Andrew Bush (We Were Promised Jetpacks, Mitchell Museum, the Seventeenth Century, the Savings & Loan), and their debut album packs a mean punch, with plenty of drive and well as a dense bottom end and some beefy percussion.

‘Dread’ builds a dark sense of drama, while ‘Word Virus’ appears to take early Joy Division as its musical starting point, while referencing William Burroughs in the title. ‘Know You Exist’ has a definite Gang of Four feel to it in the choppy, toppy guitar and general urgency, but there’s similarly a hint of Dead Kennedys and US hardcore, which is again in evidence on ‘You Can Trust Me’, which sounds like ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ played by Dick Dale before being obliterated by a frenzy of overdriven guitar.

‘The City is Dead’ locks into an agitated rockabilly surf groove, albeit with a spiky post-punk edge and if ‘Monument’ sounds like a more pissed-off, fiery version of Franz Ferdinand, it might be something in the water – or whisky – in Scotland, or the fact they’re drawing on some of the same influences. Either way, Black International are more about spitting venom with a real urgency than arty posturing. They’re pissed off at the injustices of society and the world at large. As John Lydon sang, ‘anger is an energy’, and on ‘In Debt’, Black International channel than anger to create music with real energy. Rough round the edges and intensely passionate, it’s an exhilarating listen and a refreshing change from all the manufactured angst that passes as rock music in the mainstream.


Tracklist

01. A Million Mouths
02. Destruct_o_
03. Dread (Excerpt)
04. Word Virus
05. Know You Exist
06. Interval
07. The City Is Dead
08. Monument
09. Idle Worship
10. Feed Me Rhetoric 
11.You Can Trust Me


Line-up

Stewart Allan - Vocals & Guitar
Craig Peebles - Drums


Website

http://blackinternational.co.uk/


Cover Picture

blackinternational indebt


Rating

Music: 8.5
Sound: 6
Total: 7.25 /10





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