I Concur
‘Able Archer’
(Club AC30)

I Concur are a disparate bunch. Song subjects on ‘Able Archer’ veer from Korean stem cell research to crocodile extinction. Yet the Leeds four-piece deal in tight, rugged anthems that carry that bleaken the path of regional contemporaries and recently on-hold This Et Al and ¡Forward Russia!. There’s an urgency to ‘Able Archer’ that threads throughout, from the monolithic, Idlewild-leaning ‘Sobotka’, to the siren-guitars and bludgeoning hooks of ‘Exits Are Blockades’. Moments like these provide an undercurrent for the title track centrepiece. It’s a slumbering beast that wakes to find math-rock hooks darting across its feet, only to crush them with ruthless intent. Tim Hann’s vocals are perhaps more humane, but they’re submerged under ‘Able Archer’s’ raging howl. 

Simon Jay Catling