Albums of the Year # 19 Index For Working Musik - Dragging The Needlework for the Kids at Uphole

 

Coming on like an underground vagrant gang in the manner of Fat White Family, or Brian Jonestown Massacre, Or perhaps Baader Meinhof or Red Brigades on the run from the law. Index for Working Musik stumble into the daylight blinking for the first time since Lockdown was declared, all those months ago, on debut album Dragging The Needlework for the Kids at Uphole.

I'm a sucker for bands with shades, leather jackets, curled upper lips and manifestos of insurrection and mysticism. Even though we're hearing this for the hundredth time round by now and these boys aren't really veering from the trodden path swaggered down moodily by The Velvets, Syd's Floyd,13th Floor Elevatrs, Fall, Felt, and Auteurs decades back.

These were comparison points of suspects I immediately drew up while listening to the first tracks here. I can't say I was complaining. I like this conspiracy theory bend sinister approach, and admired the fact that Index for Working Musik seemed more than content to stick to given scripts rather than struggling to reinvent new wheels that didn't need reinvention. As I said, song titles come on as manifestos. Lyrics  are insurgent slogans that remind you of the thumbed Ballard, Greene and Conrad paperbacks on your bookshelves. That's if your book collection is any good..

This is dark, twisting insolent guitar music from members of Proper Ornaments and Toy who have excellent form in this respect in recent years. Plotting their route across deserted city streets in the early hours of the morning, this is a fabulous record for those who discovered the Doors, The Velvets. Pere Ubu or T.Rex at 15 or 16 and have never been quite the same since.

I love it when I chance upon brilliantly plotted narratives like these by chance. A few years ago it was New Yorkers Mystery Lights. Then, another time Finns Black Twig. Now it seems Index for Working Musik have come up with the minor cult occult classic for 2023. It's blistering stuff frankly. Fans of the early Bunnymen, Magazine, Monochrome Set, Gorky's and Super Furries should form an orderly queue. This will more than keep you going for the coming weeks..