Autokat - 'Late Night Shopping' (Akoustik Anarkhy) Released 05/03/07

Brave. Whatever you say, putting not one, but two instrumentals on your debut album is brave. To figure out how much so, imagine one of your favourite rock albums with an additional two tracks. Most perceive instrumentals like drum solos at concerts; Un-necessary at best, goddamn atrocious and reason enough to walk out at worse. Imagine the Stone Roses debut or Definitely Maybe with two 4 minute instrumentals. You can’t because it would be wrong.

Radiohead are the only performers of worth who could get away with it, indeed attempt it. Yes maybe in rehearsal or during recording but to actually commit two to record. But no, like a missile in a missile chamber, it fits. It works. Forget what the public want and go with your own flow. Edison wouldn’t have invented the light bulb if he had bowed to public demand and wants, he simply would have made a bigger candle. Born out of the legendary Manchester music scene Autokat are the latest indie kids to offer up a serving of contemporary rock, somewhere between Bloc Party, Magazine and the cure only unlike many flashes in the pan, Autokat have a genuine talent and in late night shopping have delivered an indie classic in the waiting. It’s a work of passion done their way, without the manipulation of a record label which against the grain, lets the musicians and not the marketing wagon do the writing.

Akoustik Anarkhy are well known an pretty influential in Manchester having exposed The Longcut and Nine Black Alps but in Autokat have perhaps got their biggest discovery to date. The sound is mature already. Melodic, dark, sinister but exciting. It’s positive. In ode to the greats, The Roses, The Cure, it will make you get up and move. It’s a backdrop if you like, full of teen angst and adolescent passion. The album opens with 'Shot', a crescendo of guitar pop that fuses into a wall of guitar solos and thumping guitars, all the while accompanied by an infectious slightly off kilter drum beat. It’s not a case of verse chorus verse chorus ad infinitum with Autokat. They like to experiment and take their songs on detours and interludes and breaks and decorate them with fills and guitar riffs that capture any thoughts you may have of wandering.