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Released on March 2, 2015 via KKK Records
Just over a year ago, I attended an all dayer at the Camden Underworld. The line-up was fucking amazing, minds being blown all over the shop, but one band stood out in particular. They came out and smashed out this weird noise rock, I hadn’t really heard anything like it. They were energetic as hell, the front man didn’t seem to comply with the universal laws of physics. He floated around the venue like fucking Tarzan, then made his way back to the stage to smash out some synths only to propel himself around the venue again. Anyway, this band were Belgium’s Raketkanon and when I found out Steve Albini was producing their second offering RKTKN#2, I was stupidly excited, match made in heaven if ever I’d heard it. They are a quirky band, the track titles are just regular names such as ‘Suzanne’ and ‘Elisa’, which is a wonderful touch.
Sadly, I don’t think the record quite delivers. ‘Florent’ is a great opener, an angry, catchy affair which is full of hooks, but then it just tails off. I’m not sure if seeing them live first raised my expectations to an unrealistic level, but there is just not enough power. They have a fairly unique sound, noise rock blended with punk and weird electronic noises, but it’s all a little flat. They should have just maxed out the distortion and just gone for it, the controlled approached was no doubt deliberate, but it’s just not for me. Unless of course the level of song writing is amazing, but it’s quite there. When listening to this kind of stuff I like to get smacked around the chops and left with a feeling of ‘WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST LISTEN TO?’, but I just don’t get that with RKTKN#2.
There are interesting parts, I think some of the synths are great, but everything needs to be taken up a notch. There are passages such as ‘Mathilde’ and ‘Elisa’, which are too slow and followed by enough wallop to justify them. It’s not bad, but Raketkanon are in the same sound bracket as bands like Årabrot, Prizehog, Hey Colossus and even Mclusky and RKTKN#2 is just not on that kind of level. For me it’s underwhelming, but I implore you to see them live because that’s where Raketkanon really fucking fire.
