New album launched by Harrogate’s most creative and prolific music artist of the last 30 years
“The final track may be the poppiest thing here but it boasts an utterly unrepeatable title in true punk tradition”
A “blast of punk rock” is the promise from one of Harrogate’s most creative and prolific music artists of the last 30 years.
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After a career that’s spanned spells in various important bands, including a taste of Top of the Pops fame in the late 1990s as co-founder of synth pop band Younger Younger 28s, not to forget nearly 20 solo albums, Ashley Reaks continues to confound expectations.
Things may have got a bit proggy in a 1980s way on recent albums such as Nature Reversed and At Night the World Belongs to Me but his latest collection sees a return to the more bracing and direct approach of 2014's This Is Planet Grot,
According to the musician, writer and surrealist collage artist himself, the nine tracks on new album Post-Hope World represents a “fast, melodic blast of punk, post-punk, black humour, social satire, damaged childhoods and outsiders with influences ranging from The Ruts, Ramones, Sex Pistols and Killing Joke to Dead Kennedys and Nirvana."
As befits a return to old skool values and energy, Post-Hope World was performed solely by Reaks (vocals, bass and guitars) and equally multi-talented Harrogate producer and musician Dan Mizen (drums) who also recorded and mixed the new album.
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The standout tracks include the infectiously catchy I’m In with The Out Crowd, the title track whose verse is reminiscent of peak era Dead Kennedys and the final track which, though it may be the poppiest thing here, boasts an utterly unrepeatable title in true punk tradition.
As new in some ways as this blast from the past is with lyrics pertinent to today’s world, some things never change for the Ashley Reaks.
The nine tracks of Post-Hope World may race by in a vigorous blizzard but they remain melodic throughout.
They also demonstrate Reak’s typically full on maximalist approach to making music, all multi-tracked vocals, rich harmonies and call and response chanting which, as always, grabs the listener’s attention from start to finish.