Oslo quartet return with impressive post punk / alt. pop referencing second LP The stifling need for fresh, exciting and interesting new music to cherish over this long and bleak winter is constantly throbbing like the pain of an uncompromising in-growing toenail. Having heard this name chucked around a bit concerning said needs, this was a golden opportunity to sink one’s teeth into
Pom Poko and their second album
Cheater. First impressions of this Norwegian quadrant came by way of ten seconds of the opening title track in which the initial thoughts were “Oh God please not another post-punk band!†(in all honesty, tea was spat out in laughter when someone called up Squid describing their album by simply claiming The Rapture have reformed). However, if the average attention span is dared to expand just a fraction, this is an opener adorned with twists, turns and amicable charm, at least four catchy hooks and something which becomes more and more apparent as
It’s always a shrewd move to release an album in early January.
New releases generally dry up before the festive period, for good reason. The charts are clogged up with Best Ofs or new releases by older acts (looking at you, Mr. McCartney) with the very obvious intention of becoming Christmas presents for the older generation, and so ‘standard’ album releases struggle to be heard amid the festive noise.
Fans of new music are therefore starved for over a month, so January often benefits from the demand of salivating indie kids, with the added benefit of slightly more exposure for artists than they may get later in the year.
20th September – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
22nd September – Manchester – Academy 3
23rd September – Newcastle – Head Of Steam
25th September – Edinburgh – Mash House
26th September – Glasgow – Stereo
28th September – Southampton – The Loft
30th September – Amsterdam – Paradiso
4th October – Hamburg – Hebebühne
5th October – Berlin – Berghain Kantine
“If you have a vacancy for Favourite New Band, Pom Poko would like to apply for the role,” tweeted Tim Burgess in April last year, as Norway’s finest punk-pop anti-conformists revisited their joyous debut album, Birthday, for one of Tim’s mood-lifting Twitter listening parties. Pom Poko pimp their CV on all fronts with their glorious second album, Cheater, out early 2021. Between the quartet’s sweet melodies, galvanic punky ructions and wild-at-art-rock eruptions, Cheater is the sound of a band celebrating the binding extremes that make them so uniquely qualified to thrill: and,