Similarly, if you're unaware of Gang Of Four (unthinkable), A Brief History Of The 20th Century (unashamedly) is duly required. Content, the seminal post-punk quartet's first long player in sixteen years, seamlessly stitches together stadium-slaying Fender stabs and undulating dub baselines. Unsurprisingly.
She Said 'You Made A Thing Of Me' is overtly reminiscent of Natural's Not In It, as it rumbles and thunders ominously like smoggy clouds of murky grim lingering above Leeds' sprawling suburbia, as Andy Gill's vociferous guitars tear through metronomic, warbled rhythmic patterns. You Don't Have To Be Mad, unleashed a while back as a teaser to what we desperately wanted, is as joyously disjointed as a jive-induced shoulder dislocation, muggy, claustrophobic guitar chinks meeting druid chants and Jon King's gloriously decadent yelps. A Fruitfly In The Beehive almost sounds like a lost Marvin Gaye offcut, delving into a rather rudimentary rhyming dictionary. Who Am I? meanwhile recalls Franz Ferdinand, via The Yummy Fur, via To Hell With Poverty! whilst maintaining every ounce of its dignity as hefty bass thuds romp over ubiquitous treble. King rasps vitriolically "Who am I when everything is me?" and reflecting on that contained within Content, Gang Of Four are still all but essential to post-punk, everything rough, tough and ready round the periphery. Many emulate their brief history, whilst they continue to rewrite.
