Album Review: IST IST - 'Dagger'
Ist Ist’s fifth album to date shows they’re ready for the big time with a growing fanbase in the EU and UK and an album that echoes Joy Division and 80s new wave synth to propel you into an epic experience of a lifetime.
Echoing White Lies and bands like Joy Division Ist Ist arrive with a confident start – I Am The Fear propels you right into the pit with the fury of a thousand suns; enlisting Joe Cross – producer of Courtneers and Slow Readers Club for a record that feels ready to explode. Dagger is a track that is popping with White Lies-esque melodies and hooks that pull you in – upbeat and engaging in a way that feels appropriately explosive in the darkness. It's an album that feels centred around the duality of life and lives of the musicians in the band on the road – it’s a world of hope and optimism but also one of danger and violence; and that’s reflected by I Am The Fear; which drones on in triumph.
It's electronic rock of the best kind that lets you know what you’re in for with a synth overload that appeals to plenty of new fans as well as the established faithful. It’s a mix of stadium-ready anthem songs and intimate danger-bops with Makes No Difference pulling the chorus in a triumphant, kicking way that builds and then explodes in a way that you instantly imagine the band selling out The Roundhouse popping along to – “I can’t just sit and watch / I am hopeless for your loving touch” signals the longing of frontman Adam Houghton, the chorus instantly magnetic with his guitar and Andy Keating’s bass shining through. Also magnetic is Mat Peter’s synth – the band compliment each other so well to overlook any one of them would make Ist Ist fall apart – Joel Kay’s drums are magnetic and the key thing to making this whole record stick together. It’s catchy – instantly repeatable – I am the Fear has been in my head ever since I started listening to it and as first tracks go; there be few better this year. Makes No Difference is even better; touching on the forbidden and the desire of lust that is incapable to turn away from.
Warning Signs continues the explosive start of Ist Ist – and doesn’t let up from there. It’s about lifelong devotion – hands to hold; never questioning why – but you could make it easier for me; Houghton says – a song about not seeing the warning signs and how it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s a breakup track – pleading about love and how things could be done differently. It’s intimidate and pop-heavy – “you could make it easier you see / you could see the better part of me” is catchy as hell; and continues the stadium ready anthem of the tracks that this album just builds and builds towards. It’s energetic, it’s lively, it’s 80s synth at its best, and the Manchester band really show that they’re another act ready to come out of one of the best music scenes in the country right now. If you aren’t in love with this record by now; Burning pulls you in and keeps you there – the bassline pulsates and refuses to let you go even without the traditional chorus structure of the earlier heavy hitters it’s no less powerful.
We drift back into electronic territory with The Echo and the chorus is a belter again – we’re back in anthem mode. Everything here just builds and builds and the band soars into new heights with every track – experimentally minimalist one second and then stadium-ready the next; the range of Ist Ist’s latest album really shows their growth at every turn. The whole record is an endless assault of the senses – Houghton’s vocal range able to drift between the intimacy of Song for Someone; almost Studio Ghibli-esque first twenty seconds and turn into a powerful force that once again teases where they’re headed next – the final track; Ambition – promises big things to come, but fans who listened to Light a Bigger Fire will know that the band are very good at laying their intentions bare on their song titles – and then living up to them. Five albums in, it’s very clear that Ist Ist are just getting started.
Words by Miles Milton Jefferies
