Working Men's Club

Working Mens Club started out making music heavily influenced by jittery post-punk and new wave, but after a sea change and some lineup adjustments, they re-emerged as a jittery post-punk-influenced synth rock band. The bands leader, Sydney Minsky-Sargeant, wanted to make music that was more suited for dancing and more reflective of his love of techno, and their self-titled debut album certainly does that. The record is decked out in vintage synths, rippling 808 sequencers, thudding drum machines, rubbery synth bass lines, and grooves that split the difference between Inner City and the Human League. On top of the happily retro sounds, Minsky-Sargeant balances abrasive lyrics, detached vocal deliveries, and hypnotic melodies. A great deal of the album is reminiscent of other eras: the opening Valleys conjures up the moment in the late 80s when rock bands began to discover acid house, Outside has the hazy pop feel of mid-period New Order, and Be My Guest manages to call to mind the Fall thanks to Minsky-Sargeants drawled vocals and the sprawling, overloaded guitars. Not all the songs look so far to the past for inspiration; quite a few of them date back to the dance-punk explosion of the 2000s. John Cooper Clarke marries a loose funk groove with the kind of melancholy melody James Murphy adds to many of LCD Soundsystems songs, Cook a Coffee displays the sonic overload and hostile lyrics of Primal Scream circa XTRMNTR, while Teeth has the limber disco-meets-metallic punk feel of any number of DFA-affiliated bands. ~ Tim Sendra

『Teeth』などで話題になった西ヨークシャー発の若き4人組バンドがついにアルバム・デビュー。良い頃のニュー・オーダーのようなエレポップ情緒を主軸に、サイボトロンっぽい意匠も織り交ぜた奇矯な"A.A.A.A."などハード・エッジでダンサブルな音世界が展開される。ロス・オートンがプロデュース……と書けばファット・トラッカーズとかを連想する人もいるかもしれないが、もっと解放的で人懐っこい印象を残していく好盤。
bounce (C)轟ひろみ