Title: Dawn Of The Dog
Format Reviewed: MP3
Format Released: 1st August 2014
Reviewed By: Millie Manders
Holy fuck. 'Scuse my language but I just got a full body slam of awesome, and it's only the intro.
Angry sounding a'cappella poetry is filling my headphones full of self enforcing statements of Riskee's very bright future and humble thank you's to those who have played a part in who the are so far. It is both aggressive and submissive in it's approach. Beautiful and scarred. Then the drums start. A taster of what I am about to be immersed in and I am overwhelmed. Don't forget, I am only on the intro. I haven't even listened to the first actual track yet…
Riskee and The Ridicule, for those not in the know yet, are from Kent and formed in 2011. They are a hard hitting, politically driven underground punk band and their wheels are on fire.
Listening to this album for the first time has been an honour. I am blown away by the fact that every song is a stand alone gig anthem. I have now listened to Dawn of The Dog three times in quick succession: Firstly because it's addictive. It's instantly a favourite album in my collection and I am hard pressed to stop listening and write, hence the time lapse between my first paragraph and this. Secondly because picking out the songs I want to highlight here is proving really difficult. They are all worthy of their own paragraph of voiced joy!
It's so rare that I am introduced to a record that I love from front to back. Music truly is like water these days; it's everywhere, freely available (to those of us lucky enough to be living in countries with it fully accessible) and not enough of it is purified before serving. More often than not you pay premium prices for great tasting water. This, my friends, is premium punk, and well worth the small price of a tenner. It's 13 tracks of pure awesome.
Now that I have thickly spread my praise for this record allow me to get on with talking about a few of the individual tracks. I've picked three.
Roots: This one had to go in. It's a song that grabbed me the first time I heard it at one of their live shows. “If you ain't got roots, how you gonna grow?” Be proud of your past. Don't regret, move forward. What an awesome statement for the masses and it's surrounded by a sunshine bounce of a track.
Every song created by Riskee has a point. How often do you get to say that about an act?
Dawn Of The Dog: Better yourself is the message, but the track is a throw down sensation. Everything from the rolling toms in the break down to the slow, distorted guitar riffs and thickly accented vocals. This is a head banger of a tune.
Before I move on, the production has to be mentioned here. It's punk. In that it has messages everywhere. It's home grown. It's passionate. What sets this apart from old-school punk and brings it into the new school forum is the fact that each instrument is perfectly set apart: no sonic “mess”. You can hone in on each sound and focus on it if you want to. The vocals are out the front, each syllable audible: a truly important quality for the lyrical content.
The talent of the musicians is clear and has been represented equally. No ego from anyone. What a breath of fresh air.
Last but by no means least I will draw your attention to This Barren Land, which opens with a sample from a Margaret Thatcher speech. THIS is where they truly state their political stance. I love it. I don't want to tell you too much. What I will say is that it is a beautiful statement about our so-called democracy. If you believe in equality for all, This Barren Land may well become your theme tune.
Dawn of The Dog is a voice of the youth breaking from the illusions of a sugar-coated media feeding tube. It is the embodiment of a band protesting their repression and voicing their anger. You want punk? You just found it. And then some.
Dawn of the Dog is released 1st August 2014, and the band have set up a pre-order Facebook page here:
Well done lads, truly proud. Can't wait for my copy.x
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