Not Squares - Yeah OK
This 3-man party pack shotgunned earlier this year with the double-a side release ‘Asylum/Bi Kan Na’ and the Belfast trio’s debut album arrives with a degree of anticipation.
‘Release the Bees’ opens proceedings – a mesh of techno beats, throbbing bass and eerie vocals set up an opening salvo that takes in ‘Da Na Na’ and ‘In Front’, before the slow-funk of ‘Smith & Carlos’ gives us a breather.
‘Asylum’ brings a more conventional rock aesthetic to proceedings with its driving beat and vocal repetition, opening a strong one-two with album highlight ‘Don’t Do Nothing’, an insistent techno build-up that gives way to a driving bass and some James Murphy-esqe vocals.
The closest we come to filler comes with tracks ‘Yeah!’ and ‘Ojos Para Volar’, which fail to really take off before ‘Bi Kan Na’ reignites matters with its rapid fire drums and synths The final track ’53′ closes out the album on meandering high, trawling through influences like LCD,
Death in Vegas and some Talking Heads vocal stylings before bringing the affair to a grinding halt.
Yeah Ok is a surprisingly coherent mesh of styles which stands up to repeated listening, rarely are any of the disparate parts here used unnecessarily. Yeah Ok marks out a substantial new talent, and one which will deservedly feature in ‘Best of 2010’ lists across the land.
