Ist Ist - Architecture
Spoiler alert: this record is unlikely to lift your mood.
If you listen to music as an act of escapism (we all do), but also for its capacity to feel swathes of joy rather than recognition or melancholy, Ist Ist are not the band for you right now.
The Mancunians have taken their time over this debut. Operating since 2015, the steps taken to get to this point are familiar yet different: as most bands do, the four-piece cut their teeth on stage, but had both the gumption and the nous to release limited edition CDR bootlegs of these gigs which financed their early recorded work in the form of EPs which then, in turn, paid for Architecture.
Thinking further outside the box, the band have drip-fed tracks from the album over the last few weeks – similar to the traditional format of singles, but for every track. Whilst the approach is risky, the way the music industry is moving it was only a matter time before someone went the whole hog. Such clarity of thought and focus is apparent in the music itself, and is there from the off.
Opener ‘Wolves’ is full of foreboding, dystopian science-fiction with hairpin-tight notes and high-hat driven drums. Aptly, as the track recalls Suede’s magnificent ‘Introducing The Band’ (in tone rather than tempo), Adam Houghton’s vocals fade away whilst the rest of the band do their thing in creating a righteous funeral procession. The icy ‘You’re Mine’ is packed with grandiose guitars and whip-crack drumming, and lyrics such as, ‘you need to reassess and understand the essence of life that we possess’, should give some indication of where we are.
On that basis, it will come as no surprise to read that Joy Division are Ist Ist’s spiritual forebears, but perhaps not in the way you would think: Houghton’s striking baritone vocals undoubtedly channel Ian Curtis, but ‘You’re Mine’ and ‘Silence’ are two of a number of tracks featuring loping basslines that wouldn’t be out of place on Closer or New Order’s pre-1993 output.
Silence also echoes White Lies (specifically the track ‘Death’) in the guitar tones, but is the sort of track that band always wanted to write but weren’t dark enough of soul. Likewise on ‘Night’s Arm’ Houghton sounds uncannily like Harry McVeigh, but again the layered guitars and depth of the song supersede anything that band have done. Best of all is ‘Slowly We Escape’, another funeral march but traditionally organ-led until it explodes excitingly into life, barnstormingly rock out and then fade out. Think Interpol doing Muse’s ‘Knights Of Cydonia’.
The comparisons with other doom-laden bands then are obvious but valid, yet it’s not all dark melancholy. Despite the title, ‘Black’ is some form of love song with more hopeful lyrics (‘I can make the seas part for you’) and strides epic commerciality very well, smacking of ‘crossover hit’. But largely, desolation is the order of the day: ‘Discipline’ could be the soundtrack to Bandersnatch, and the dub-driven ‘A New Love Song’ is desolate but beautiful.
Introspective (the title is a reference to the mind rather than physical structures) but cathartic, Architecture is an incredibly polished debut, and should herald a new player in the indie rock game.