Album Review: Working Men's Club by Working Men's Club

If music often acts as a means of escape, then Syd Minsky-Sargeant must have really wanted to get the fuck out of Todmorden. "Trapped inside a town inside my mind / Stuck with no ideas, I'm running out of time," begins heady opener 'Valleys', and the rest of 'Working Men's Club' feels like a defiant fight to ensure that defeat doesn't happen. From the aggy, squalling guitars of 'Cook A Coffee' to the almost Orange Juice-esque riffs of 'White Rooms and Other People', 'WMC' is a debut like no other in 2020, one that lands completely out of step with any current sonic trends.

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Working Men's Club match the hype on their sought-after self-titled debut album. The stage was very much set for the debut to be a success, with a proven track record of live performances, standout singles, and plenty of attention from both radio stations and the music press. Here to bust out of doledrum, clad in a t-shirt that screams socialism and armed with drum machine, synth, pedal and an icy stare, please welcome Working Men's Club.

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Tucked away in the Calder Valley, this was Syd Minsky-Sargeant's youth. Voraciously devouring music until his preferences read like an all-you-can-eat buffet, with something from everywhere. But, like with The Orielles in nearby Halifax, he decided listening wasn't enough. He needed to create something new.

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Working Men's Club started out making music heavily influenced by jittery post-punk and new wave, but after a sea change and some lineup adjustments, they re-emerged as a jittery post-punk-influenced synth rock band. The band's leader, Sydney Minsky-Sargeant, wanted to make music that was more suited for dancing and more reflective of his love of techno, and their self-titled debut album certainly does that. The record is decked out in vintage synths, rippling 808 sequencers, thudding drum machines, rubbery synth bass lines, and grooves that split the difference between Inner City and the Human League.

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Whether by luck or ruthless, hard-nosed design, in two short years as teen frontman of Todmorden's Working Men's Club, Syd Minsky-Sargeant has sloughed off a couple of band members who didn't share his electro-vision and found three more who do. Out went guitarist Giulia Bonometti and drummer Jake Bogacki to pursue irreconcilable ambitions, and in came bassist Liam Ogburn, third Drenge man Rob Graham and The Moonlandingz' Mairead O'Connor to bring some messed-up harmony and a whole bank of synths. They've recalibrated fast.

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