Foals - Antidotes (Transgressive)

Hype, a 1920's expression for being 'shortchanged' or 'cheated'(and most probably somehow Latin for 'shit'), is a word commonly fixed to the lips of those who find themselves talking about Foals. However, its important to bear in mind that the Oxford five-piece have tried their upmost to resist this, so much that they decided to drop their two biggest singles 'Hummer' and 'Mathletics' from their debut long player Antidotes.

So that debut in question, sees Foals swap given acclaim for fresh melodies, or in the words of lead wordsmith Yannis Philipakkis "40 minutes of solid drones". Its difficult to dissect the sound of this band, there's moments in opener 'The French Open' where Swingball meets Guitar Hero, with two electric six strings plucking back and forth at each other in dub rhythm, whilst at other corners of the album there's a clearer thrust towards Jazz with the use of horn sections. Thus any autopsy or breakdown would only prove death my musical spasm. Overall though, Antidotes is almost too slow burning for its own good, so maybe it's pulling the trigger on itself? Well, no. Although it does guise itself as three quarters of an hour's worth of ripely produced jamming sessions with a few lyrics chucked in to pass quality control checks at Transgressive Records, it does hit a market. Its experimental - and that's a get out of jail free card that's only ever truly reserved for a necessary cause. Its surely not going to be shifting copies at your local Asda or Sainsbury's, nor is that feat expected of it, but as singles 'Balloons' and 'Cassius' have so far proven, Foals know how to dent the airwaves and spark mouth-to-mouth orgies.

So what has Antidotes done? To answer that question most thoroughly, it's thrown Foals a lifeline, allowing them to outlive the hype which surrounds them and to trot into the distance, to grow into five stallions.



ANANT NAIK