Album Review: Urth by Kagoule

On Nottingham’s east side, beyond its thriving 'creative quarter' and Sneinton’s age-old market, there’s a shabby, brick-built building tucked away in a side street. Formerly a 'Wholesale Fruit and Potato Merchant' (the old sign still sits above the door) it now serves as a pre-eminent DIY music venue – as well as the rehearsal space for one of Nottingham’s golden hopes, Kagoule. The trio’s debut offering Urth comes, fittingly, at the peak of a musical golden age for the city – as a glorious antithesis to Jake 'Straight Outta Clifton' Bugg’s underhanded corporate success, the angriest band in Britain Sleaford Mods threaten the top 10 (quite literally) whilst on the ground, the city’s live music scene is slowly being recognised as one of the country’s purest and most diverse.

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Scavenging from the decomposing carcasses of the 90s US alternative rock scene has become less and less fructiferous after more than two decades of riding a crestfallen wave, so when a band chooses to use these carcasses to provide the bulk of the nutrients for their latest offering, boxing clever is essential. Nottingham trio Kagoule prove themselves extremely able of doing just that with their debut LP, expertly entwining evasive melodies and skeletal clout around a brash, grungy blueprint that will leave the red meat lovers amongst us salivating. Right from the off, with opening track Gush, the quiet/loud dynamic that was refined in the 90s by the usual big name suspects is at the forefront of Kagoule’s sound.

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For a city whose only notable musical exports up until recently were the likes of Paper Lace and Su Pollard, Nottingham has been spewing out a fair amount of chart botherers over the last couple of years, including the likes of Jake Bugg, Indiana, and Saint Raymond. Away from the glare of the charts, Nottingham has always had a thriving underground music scene. Acts making worthwhile music and on their own terms existing in communities of like-minded people.

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Scroll down for reviews of five albums that might just have slipped under your radar this week, from Autobahn’s relentlessly dark debut to the versatile racket of Nottingham newcomers Kagoule.Drinks – ‘Hermits On Holiday’A guitar emits a long screech, drums crash randomly and Cate Le Bon ….

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