Having started as a rambunctious band playing fast and hard dance-punk, the Belfast trio Not Squares are now firmly making the former with the sensibility of the latter, if their new second album Bolts is any indication.
A hypnotic groove that wouldn’t be out of place at a Factory Floor show kicks things off on a 40-odd minute journey that takes in vocoder-assisted electronic pop sheen on ‘Oops Said Hi’, a few of the recent killer tracks ‘Fall Far’, ‘Simpler Vibe’ and ‘Hey You’ which fill out their space with synths and house-nodding beats matched to poppier vibes on the vocals.
In between the almost-continuous record, there are tracks named after motorways, “junctions” ‘M2’, ‘M4’, ‘M6’ and ‘M8’, pile-driving drum machine-pushing sketches before the ultimate track ‘Beat Below’ ties all of these disparate things together with propulsive aplomb. Not squares, very cool.
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The album is released Monday on Strange Brew Records. iTunes.
The band play The Grand Social on June 26th for their album launch w/ DJ Le Michael Galaxie.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
