Label: So Young Records
Released: 11th June 2021
If the music scene was a nightclub, then the bouncers on the door of post-punk would be operating a one-in-one-out system by now. Rarely has a genre got so saturated so quickly as this, a problem for the next crop of scamps who are left hanging around outside waiting for the bigger kids to bugger off and make some space for them.
That’s the challenge facing London foursome Folly Group then, and it’s one they square up to happily on their debut EP ‘Awake And Hungry’. The title-track begins ominously, Sean Harper’s poetic lyrics drifting in over glitchy atmospherics and rumbling bass. “I was reborn here, and I could die twice,” he warns, ushering in a familiar sound. Thankfully there’s just enough of an experimental edge and intensity surrounding the band to carry it through.
In a scene that is far too easy to play by the numbers, Folly Group’s habit of tweaking the template is probably what’s going to stand them apart. While their intense early single ‘Four Wheel Drive’ still thumps and bludgeons, ‘Fewer Close Friends’ is all hyperactive behaviour and twitchy new textures. There’s a couple of false starts before they get there, but as EP closer’ Sand Fight’ rolls in, there’s a sense that the band are starting to find what will stand them apart. The kind of track that begs to be witnessed live in rooms where the sweat drips from the ceiling; it’s that arena where Folly Group will win their battles later this year. Let ’em in, there’s room for one more.
