Yak - Alas Salvation

The Guardian 80

(Octopus Electrical)

It can sometimes be hard to feel optimistic about rowdy, new guitar music. So much sounds grubby and calculated, grabbing at the receding coat-tails of past fads. And then you come across a band like Yak, a three-piece whose live shows are a force of nature, and whose debut album is barely less than that. Credit must go to producer Steve Mackey, who captures the sense of a band whose instruments sound almost as if they’re playing themselves. Everything’s in the red, the guitars sound as if they wondered what it would sound like if you layered 60s garage rock, Stooges-style noise, 70s punk and a couple of pneumatic drills on top of each other: it’s like being run over by a steamroller for 41 minutes, but in a good way. You’re unlikely to be writing critical analyses of the lyrics, but you don’t need to with a record that sounds as exciting as this. Even better, there’s melody to go with noise. What with the new album from White Lung, too, there’s hope for the rowdies yet.