Recorded music692 entries

!!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?

Released: 23/08/2010 Warp
For a group with an eccentric name (it’s pronounced “chik chik chik”) who first attracted attention during the now unfashionable dance-punk scene of the early 00s, !!! aren’t doing too badly. Frontman Nic Offer leads the new line-up through another tight set of funk for indie kids. For more information visit: http://www.myspace.com/chkchkchk Buy: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003NRYBFM?ie=UTF8&tag=cultur00-21&linkCode=as2&ca…
80 %
allmusic“!!! remain as good as ever...” Strange Weather is full of the kind of ferocious and funky dance punk that they’ve always done. Taking barely any pauses for breath, the record is a headlong rush from beginning to end...
 
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70 %
NME“Perhaps we’ll look back on this as !!!’s ??? record...” A more disciplined, ziggurat kind of groove odyssey, where the modular sounds are rhombus and the emotional undercurrents darker and more demure...
 
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60%
Guardian“There's still some gas in the tank...” On this fourth album, their answer has been a sojourn in Berlin to "mainline the city's dark energy". When they make good on this intent, via deeper, clubbier cuts such as "The Hammer", it's thrilling...
 
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80 %
The Independent“It's surprisingly memorable...” It comes as a shock to find they've matured enough to deliver a record like Strange Weather, on which synths wash prettily over Nic Offer's worldly widsom, delivered in a Gil Scott-Heron drawl...
 
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40%
Dusted Magazine“Out of a social context, this is music to be pitied...” Where once you were glad Nic Offer's monotone was disguised by the music, now you kind of wish it was brought forward more to distract from the stifling sameness of the songs...
 
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68 %
Pitchfork“You'll enjoy it plenty while it's on...” Strange Weather features a greater focus on texture and mood than conventional melody. Which isn't to say the band isn't capable of indelible earworms...
 
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60%
Drowned In Sound“Magnificent unpredictability...” It quickly becomes clear that on Strange Weather, Isn’t It?, !!! are desperately seeking hooks and forgetting about too much of the other stuff...
 
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80 %
MusicOMH“The album knows exactly what it wants to do, and accomplishes it...” The most ebullient, accessible, and gorgeously compact album !!! has ever put their name on. And you're not going to find nine songs that will keep your hips moving quite like these...
 
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The Telegraph“Not yet reviewed”
 
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Uncut“Not yet reviewed”
 
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