The debut record from Initiates, Esoteric Pop is a neat updating of some familiar forms, and a rather mainstream-sounding release to find on the PNKSLM label. I don't say that as an insult, but say it instead to highlight how downright radio-friendly this is. Of course the music remains alternative rock, but considering the sort of levels of success bands like Editors and Interpol have maintained, Initiates surely deserve something similar. Esoteric Pop is just that listenable.
"Voidless" reveals a debut owed to Joy Division, but the immediate charms of "Minotaure" made me think of The Chameleons and The Sound instead. This is bracing stuff, even if it's the kind of guitar-rock we heard from a lot of bands in the Nineties, and even earlier. It's still very well done and easy to enjoy. While "You Haunt Me" is moodier still, "Five Eyes" bristles and snaps with a lot of energy. This one and the roaring "Invocation" are worthy successors to the kind of indie-rock made by Andreas Lagerström previously in Holograms, but the sound is beefier here throughout every track on Esoteric Pop.
Initiates are not doing anything new here but this is a very consistent record, and the kind of release that surprises with how much promise is heard within its grooves. Of course some of this sounds like Killing Joke, or even early U2, but Initiates pour themselves into this material with the sort of spirit one's not heard since the early days of those bands, hence the comparisons. Esoteric Pop has lots of throwback charm for anyone who grew up on that sort of thing, and even for those of us who are still a black-clad brooding teen inside a rapidly-aging body.
Esoteric Pop is out on Friday via PNKSLM.
More details on Initiates via the band's official Facebook page.
[Photo: PNKSLM]