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Drahla : angeltape
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Drahla’s second album follows their 2019 critically acclaimed debut, Useless Coordinates and hones down their post-punk angularity with added complexity and details into powerful dislocated slices of dark energy neo-pop.
Five years between releases may seem a long time but Leeds based art rock crew Drahla have not been messing around.
Digging deep into the legacy of the post-punk M62 sound, they have all the hallmarks of the experimental Interzone of that period cranked up to the now. There is nothing dusty or dated about these aural adventures and their angularity is cranked to the max in a series of powerful yet sensual songs that pack a genuine punch and embrace the modern dance and titching tech to help create an astounding song cycle.
This is the key to Drahla – there is more than post-punk posturing going on here and a deep understanding of the art of the song, and as they run through a whole gamut of emotional skree with their deliberately deadpan vocals, they leave plenty of hooks in their pounding addictive melee.
The result is angeltape – an album that documents their own lives as they swerve through the dark and the light, grief and trauma wnilst taking that darkness and using it to spark these unique textures and sounds. The new album also takes full advantage of their new lineup, which includes guitarist Ewan Barr joining the core lineup of vocalist and guitarist Luciel Brown, bassist Rob Riggs, and drummer Mike Ainsley, adding more textures to their architectural sound.
Drahla understand the art of space and there is no clutter to their music. Every note counts from the jackhammer chorused driving bass, the scratching guitar, the intermittent sax skronk and the impatient drums.- it’s a great soundscape for those precisely perfect vocals to deadpan off.
angeltape is a stunning release that takes the template and rips it up and starts yet again. It’s a powerful missive with deeply intelligent songs that embrace new frontiers but get under your skin. Dislocated, deeply intelligent and sitting perfectly in the middle of the dance floor and late-night introspection, it’s a ‘gothic music that you can dance to’ like Martin Hannet once called Joy Division.
This is deeply intelligent, thoroughly modern music and perhaps the best of a clutch of bands who have dared to take on post-punk and shunt it into another future in a different kitchen.
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