What’s really in a name? Kill City Defectors may sound like they chose their moniker by randomly picking words from a cold war-era newspaper, but it also gives the impression of another Gang Of Four-loving angular guitar combo. However, appearances, as the man once said, can be very fucking wrong indeed. While there is a certain amount of staccato axe-work thrown into the mix, the over-riding feel of the Kildare quartet’s debut is a groove-laden affair, like a speeded-up Republic of Loose or a less whacked-out Primal Scream.
This all sounds tremendously promising, and initially it is, with opening track ‘Your Mutiny’ bleeding from your speakers with a stomping guitar riff, funky Ian Brown-like rhythm and a mantra-like chorus, “I might beg but I won’t be borrowed”. Similarly, their debut single, ‘Messed Up’ boasts a nice combination of rumbling bass and weird effects, overlaid with a tune so infectious it could require hospitalisation, while ‘Sympathy Pains’ mutates from a catchy pop tune into a toweringly scary scream-fest at least four times during its three minutes plus.
By the time you get two-thirds through, however, the call-and-response rabble-rousing starts to get a tad tiresome. While there are air-guitar riffs aplenty and their rhythm section is one of the more interesting in the country at the moment, there’s just too much bluster and not enough soul. In many ways, KCD are like the football player with all the fancy flicks but none of the raw passion required when the chips are down on a wet Sunday in Wigan. ‘Smile (And The World Smiles Backwards)’ is a case in point: while it successfully welds techno effects onto a more traditional rock structure, the result seems more like a science experiment than one from the heart. Still, I’m sure it’ll go down well on the dancefloor.
While all four Kill City Defectors are accomplished musicians, capable of creating compelling three-or-four-minute slices of indie-funk (‘Born Again’, ‘Messed Up’, ‘Black Sheep’), over the course of an entire album, their shtick wears far too thin and sadly becomes a case of style over substance.