ALBUM REVIEW: (re)constructed – Bicurious

(re)constructed, the debut album from BICURIOUS, is the sound of two rowdy boys from Ireland making post-rock that you can dance to. Still present are the sweepingly euphoric chord progressions of the genre’s conventions, but accompanied by raucous cheering, vocalisations, and a healthy dose of headbanging grooves.

Things kick off with a short introduction, making use of voices and speech patterns – ironically it is these which will be mostly absent for the rest of this almost entirely instrumental album. First track proper is the euphoric groover Like We Used To, a song which wouldn’t exactly feel out of place on a dancefloor, with a riff that sounds like it’s come straight from the Ibiza strip. It’s masterfully blended into breakdown sections, crescendos and syncopated drum patterns in order to create a song which draws from so many corners of genre that it sounds entirely unique.

What follows is the radio-friendly Palapalapa, which is the band at their most accessible. It takes the approach of sounding like a football chant, something you’d sing in a pub with your arms wrapped around a perfect stranger at the end of a long night. It brings a sense of rawness to a genre which so often seems polished and perfect, and it’s a hell of a good time.

What’s really impressive about this album is how far BICURIOUS manages to push the experimental side of their playing, whilst still orbiting around a couple of central, core hooks per song. Frequently, there will be elements of noise, math and punk thrown in, but never so much that they lose the sense that this is, ultimately, a band that prides itself on their accessibility. Take We’re All Totally Fucked, for instance. It’s a song which begins with and includes many voice samples, driving the band’s sound towards the likes of PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING or even GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, but soon devolves into what is actually quite a touching, catchy vocal hook, akin to the quieter moments of a band like ARCHITECTS. It’s almost whiplash-inducing, but the lads manage to hold it together.

Overall, this album is a really interesting and potentially divisive listen. It’s easy to imagine post-rock purists rejecting it for its forays into more hook-based territory, but it’s equally easy to see this band winning over new fans to the sub-genre from their accessibility and catchiness, as well as their broad range of influences. With a sense of messy comradery throughout, oodles of personality and the predominant idea of dancing our way through whatever troubles may come our way next, our money’s mostly on the latter.

Rating: 8/10

(re)constructed is set for release on July 30th via self-release.

Like BICURIOUS on Facebook.