single review ~ 'LA Dick' ~ abandcalledboy

Name: abandcalledboy
Genre: Alt-Rock
For Fans Of: FIDLAR, Wolf Alice, Rage Against The Machine
Location: Belfast

During the long sorta-hot Summer of 2014, abandcalledboy released a track called 'Cliff Richard'. Here they hailed Cliff as 'the messiah' amongst a barrage of heavy drumming and riffs galore. It was rough, certainly, but within this lay abandcalledboy's charm. They are rough as hell, yet always seem to make it work. Little over a year on and what have these four best friends that anyone can have learned? Well for one thing the importance of a good ol' profile picture. As shown above, the bands brilliant take on the humble stock photo did genuine good for their stance in Belfast. I know it made me give them a second listen, and it was here that my journey back into the lives of  Belfast's noisiest businessmen began...with a look at their latest single, 'LA Dick'.

The first thing we notice about 'LA Dick' is it's driving guitar lines. The bands industrial, almost Krautrock like melodies feel like they've found their place here, as this song swings between a pumped up Kasabian and thundering alt-rock.

Sonically, the band have made mammoth strides forward here. The guitar work is neat, rumbling through the verses, before exploding into that aggressive chorus. It's catchy too, with a FIDLAR like shout thrown in. You can already hear a crowd screaming it back to them, an undoubtedly important element of their live set.

Complete with a remix well worth checking out (props to Keian Roohipour for that one), this must surely be abandcalledboy's best release to date.

Taylor Johnson

'It's a yes from us'