Various

Its been a while since I mused of band names like Green Day and Refused rhetorically describing their catalogue material, but unlike those respectively (post)-ironic statements, there’s nothing acutely metaphorical about Various. It’s a matter of fact description of their sound. Manicured, dance floor-grinding beats writhe beneath post-modern, spoken word nihilism open their debut The World Is Gone, followed by a shivering acoustic eulogy like Massive Attack on wheatgrass. Though a Prodigy remix of "Soho” could turn in a qualified reply to British rave tracks "Dare” or "Fit But Don’t Know It,” but given there is none, the album lacks a standout club track, leaving an heir of that production team’s jungle beginnings, while mirroring Tapes ’n Tapes’ jagged, humble harmonies and hooks. It follows that Various is going for a more reclusive stature as an alt-club act, releasing their main draw singles apart from the bread’n’butter of their album oriented experimentations. Still, there’s no truly virtuosic instrumentation among the analogue sounds, but the glitch-laden filling in of the bars and breaks on every song, between every last lurid lyric, hints the world might come back around to haunt us. "Soho,” meanwhile, is the predominant triumph. Trading themes from Timberlake with Dizzee bass lines respectively, channelling the best of underground club angst into a snarling, sneering mantra of loathe.