FOALS
Antidotes
(Sub Pop)
By Marke B.
Oxford art school dropouts all, this lovable Brit quintet of post-punk math rockers aspires, perhaps a bit disappointingly, to revive Steve Reich-like minimalist grooves on the dance floor while spicing up the mirror ball Borg a la Battles (insect guitars, claustrophobic shouts, high hat onslaughts, post-techno vibe).
We’ve heard all this before. But on their four-star debut, with shimmering production by TV on the Radio’s David Sitek and afrobeat band Antibalas’ horn section, Foals escape the twilight of dance rock and end up left of the Cure in a boppy zone of their own. Sprightly vocalist Yannis Philippakis tends to bark militaristically over the band’s rapid machinations (toe-tappers “Cassius” and “Electric Bloom” and first single “Balloons”). But when he drops the Rapture act and hoarsely croons his twisted metaphors – as in the heart-rending “Olympic Airways,” in which he’s “building an aviary for today” over shattered fiddles – or when the group’s disparate intentions fall grandly into place (“Two Steps Twice,” sly, penultimate track “Tron”), Foals outpace their sum of parts.
FOALS
Thurs/22, 10 p.m., $5-$8
popscene
330 Ritch
(415) 541-9574