Although I am focusing my search for new music in 2024 on female artists, that doesn’t mean I’m not listening to other new music as well. My favorite album of 2022 was by Yard Act, a post-punk band who are part of an ever-growing UK post-punk movement influenced by the music of the late ’70s and early ’80s. For Yard Act, the main influence is The Fall. For others, the main influences include The Clash, The Buzzcocks, The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo and the Bunnymen, and dozens of other artists from that time. The debut full-length album Down There! by Folly Group leans heavily into Joy Division, Gang of Four, and XTC. Taken as a whole, bands like Folly Group, Yard Act, Fontaines D.C., and dozens more are defining the sound of modern rock. Throw in the post-prog music of Black Midi, Squid, and Black Country, New Road, and the music coming out of the UK right now is the most creative period of 21st century rock since Radiohead changed everything in the early 2000s.
Down There! by Folly Group
Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way. Folly Group have been around for about 3 years. They are from London and Down There! is their debut album. The album cover features an illustration that represents 10 locations around London that influenced the creation of the album.
If you aren’t familiar with the early releases of Gang of Four then you may not notice the almost derivative nature of first track “Big Ground.” This is not a bad thing. The highly influential sound of Gang of Four came and went much too quickly, and there have been far too few bands to take advantage of the sound they invented. Their use of angular guitars, rhythmic variation, and near-spoken vocals still sound new and original today, almost 50 years later.
The album continues with “I’ll Do What I Can,” a song that pulls in the sounds of Joy Division and Siouxsie & The Banshees and adds an instantly catchy chorus. The next few songs continue the late 70s post-punk sounds, culminating in a song, “Strange Neighbour,” that is very reminiscent of the darker sounds of XTC during that period. The second half of the album continues to expand on these post-punk sounds. Moving deftly through material that could all have been recorded 45 years ago, the album concludes where it started. The closer “Frame” sounds as much like Gang of Four as anything I’ve heard since the debut by Futureheads, while also adding a darker, modern take on the style. In all, the ten songs present 36 minutes of music that land the band firmly in the modern sound of UK post-punk.
I have a feeling that this record will slowly drop from my list of 2024 favorites, but for right now it is working very well as an album to listen to while driving around. If nothing else, it is yet another example that rock and roll is not dead, no matter how many records Drake and Ice Spice continue to sell and how many Grammy Awards Taylor Swift continues to win.
As always, thanks for listening, and reading!
To learn more about Folly Group, check out there official website or visit their Instagram page.
The Radio Faux Show 