The Atlantic-straddling quartet Algiers make a unique, sprawling riot of noise – house, gospel, punk all smashed into one another, with frontman Franklin James Fisher’s fierce anti-colonial narratives tying them in place and forcing them to dance. This year’s ‘The Underside of Power’ is heavy and uncompromising, but it’s propelled forwards by rhythm; handclaps and driving hi-hats that push the songs through your ears and down to your feet before your brain has a chance to work out what happened: industrial gospel music, wild concoctions that shouldn’t work on paper but defy all opinions by existing. Algiers are not for the faint-hearted, or innocent stragglers who just wandered in; politically furious, visceral, urgent and necessary, Algiers run headlong into the global darkness that threatens to engulf us all – and they’re beckoning everyone else to follow.
Sun 26 Nov, Hare & Hounds 106 High Street, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7JZ, 7.30pm £9.90 skiddle.com
Words: Chris Donald - Gigs Editor
Published on: Wed 1 Nov 2017