Aircooled
★★★★
Eat The Gold
MUSIC’S NOT DEAD. DL/LP
Sussex quartet’s second: the greatest Kraut-gospel-funk party album ever?
From the burgeoning ‘new Seattle’ of St Leonardson-Sea, this Neu!-loving quartet propelled by Elastica, Lush and Jesus And Mary Chain drummer Justin Welch here evolve apace. Where 2022’s debut St Leopards packed four sprawling motorik instrumentals, two lasting 15 minutes-plus, this follow-up sees the focus sharpen to six monster tracks, each five-to-eight minutes long, four featuring doubled-up vocal raps from ‘synthesist’ Riz Maslen and guitarist Oliver Cherer, all drenched in stargazing euphoria. Airports opens as a thrilling Neu!-scape variant, the iconic Klaus Dinger beat mutated amid shimmering keys to a near-baggy shuffle, until 4:51 when a female choir ecstatically voices the band’s name, ushering in a Damascene upward-spiralling climax. Aircooled soon get down-and-dirty: No Reason To Lie thunders on Katherine Wallinger’s Trouble Funk bass line, while male-female high-tension rhymes express powder-keg frustration. The rest is equally exhilarating, making Eat The Gold a danceable tonic to see off those bleak midwinter blues.