Like all the best acts, Algiers put blood in the music, but that’s just one iron in the fire. Originally from Atlanta, Algiers’ debut album is rich and idiosyncratic in composure and execution.
One moment, they’re in the midst of a dark, surging electronic storm; the next, they’re knee-deep in a menacing, abrasive post-punk jungle, with all the rattle and hum that entails.
You could reel off TV On the Radio as a precedent, but Algiers follow a far different circuit. Throughout the record, the dots are joined by Franklin James Fisher’s righteous gospel holler, a distinctive raw thread to pull you through songs which rage about colonialism, racism, injustice and inequality.
It's a thumping, throbbing, gripping affair, a place where a track titled Irony. Utility. Pretext makes complete and utter sense when you fall under its tribal, hypnotic spell.
An album which recognises that the political can’t be ignored.
