Drahla: angeltape

Elusively barbed and gnarled, Drahla were one of the first U.K. acts since Moonshake to defrag guitar-based music in such fresh, incongruous ways. The evidence? One of 2019’s best records in Useless Coordinates.

A brooding force of post-punk tailor-made for drives down the coastline, the Leeds outfit’s jarring commotion wasn’t all that it seemed. Led by singer/ guitarist Luciel Brown, her spits and snarls were delivered with acerbic menace, and alongside bassist / keys player, Rob Riggs, and percussionist, Michael Ainsley, Drahla created a swirling racket of no-wave-inspired lunacy unlike anything in the U.K. If anything, the band’s dystopian rumblings were more aligned with trans-Atlantic kindred spirits such as FACs and Protomartyr.

Five years is a long time for any band these days. With the rise of streaming and facilitator platforms such as Bandcamp, the number of acts out there in the new music sphere grows every day, making it susceptible for those who stay in the shadows for too long. Not Drahla. Since Useless Coordinates, not one act has mirrored their majesty, and it continues to be the case with their much-anticipated follow-up, angeltape.

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Alongside new guitarist Ewan Barr, previous unofficial fourth member of the band, saxophonist Chris Duffin (XAM Duo) now make Drahla are five-piece concern, and this retooling exercise offers a new dimension to the band.

Continuing from Duffin’s wailing interludes that snaked in and out of Useless Coordinates, the piercing saxophones open the way on Under the Glass. It’s a wicked entrance into a song that feels like a Sonic Youth Goo-era fever dream, with alternative tunings that flip the script on the post-punk foundation this band was built on.

The mere sound of Default Parody mirrors its title. Brown’s abstract, sing-speak sermons at their best (“I’m not a liar / but I can’t tell the truth”), and with noise like a metallic blur, it’s a song that has diesel flowing through the main lines.

With buzz-saw guitars and the relevant dose of skronk, Zig-zag and Talking Radiance are songs that ring in your ears like a war. Abrasive and forceful, Second Rhythm remains in the blast zone, with hooping rhythms and droning harmonics depicting the “earth, wind, sea, fire” that Brown references throughout the song.

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And there’s no let-up on the dub-infused avant-punk of Lipsync. Sonics that knock you off balance, and it feeds into the instrumental fury of A. With a flash and bang, A possesses the kind of shooting-pain riffs that are like ligaments ripping from bone.

Different in feel to its predecessor, it’s no surprise, as Drahla aren’t ones to neither rest on their laurels nor make the same record twice. While Useless Coordinates hooped and lurched to every corner of an exciting new sound world, with tracks such as Concrete Lily and the closing cacophony of Grief in Phantasia, angeltape is the result of a band that is more assured in their songcraft and ideas. Here they find new corners within the sound world with off-kilter proto-punk that causes sensory overload. It’s fast, direct, and makes the listener think on their feet.

A move like this underlines Drahla’s mystique. Fusing together ideas of the avant-garde and punk, like Moonshake and The Pop Group before them, Drahla keep flying the flag with some of the most forward-thinking sounds out there today. Angeltape, most certainly the latest triumph for a band that will hopefully be around to produce many more.

Angeltape is out now via Captured Tracks. Purchase from Bandcamp.