Just Listen: Ist Ist – Strangers
Ist Ist
Words: Leander Hobbs
A cheeky guitar rift kicks in and I have to check – is this really ist ist? Then the horror-movie vocals start up and, whilst not quite the kick in the head of their previous work, new single Strangers is still a kick and a punch down a dark alley.
When Joy Division exploded onto the scene with their seminal postpunk vacuity my parent’s worried I was depressed; 40 years on and Strangers is the mature realisation of that teenage struggle, amplified by decades of sugary bubble-gum pop.
It is a thumping, electro-post-punk dirge that can legitimately lay claim to that certain mercurial Manchester pedigree.
Strangers is out now via Scruff of the Neck but be warned – it may be more refined but it is no less raw so brace yourself.
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