Infadels - We Are Not The Infadels
It's rare when a band comes along that you can get really excited about. I don't mean excited in the way that certain publications get about every flavour of the month, before dumping them and moving on to the next polished reworking of the same thing. I mean really excited, like when you know something big could be about to happen and you were right there at the start.
We Are Not The Infadels is the debut album from Infadels. Note that it's not 'The Infadels', the title of the record itself takes a back handed stab at all the 'the' bands currently polluting our airwaves and CD players. Infadels are new, and Infadels are different. The dictionary definition of an Infidel is 'One who doubts or rejects a particular doctrine, system, or principle' and that's what this band are doing. Rejecting the current conventions of British indie pop music and breathing life back into it. The indie scene is getting overpopulated with drab copycats at the moment and is in danger of collapsing in on its own self indulgent self. Bands like Infadels are needed to reinvigorate and reawaken people and hopefully to inspire some new and creative artists.
The Infadels' sound is all created live by the band and helps to give a live vibe even to the heavily processed and creatively programmed sections of the album. They have mixed conventional guitars riffs and song structures with sounds more commonly found in house and electro and topped it off with singable and catchy vocals to suit each song perfectly. The band have set out to achieve a lot in just one album, but I really think it's paid off. From lush soundscapes to layered house beats all the way through to straight up in your face indie rock. From this solid groundwork the Infadels can take their sound in many directions and develop and mature what is already a fantastic blend, into a worldwide underground phenomenon. There is real longevity here as long as the band keep up the standard.
The album is the kind of record that gives you more as you listen to it more. The singles like 'Jagger 67' and 'Love Like Semtex' are catchy and very well produced, but are by no means the end of the story. There is an overall dark and intense vibe to the band's sound when they play live and this has been captured perfectly, even in the extended sections of some of the songs later in the album. The structure of the whole CD has also been set out well, you're introduced to the band with the most accessible material first with the longer more house-inspired instrumental sections featuring towards the end. The mood also shifts from the more upbeat as mentioned earlier to entrancing and soulful in tracks such as 'Murder That Sound'. The only thing I missed from the live show that didn't make it onto the album was the crowd favourite 'I like your head'.
Overall you can't go wrong with 'We Are Not The Infadels', it's truly a work of art and I look forward to seeing where Infadels go from here!