#useless coordinates

British musicians like Lesley Woods, Sue Tompkins, Julz Sale and Lora Logic fronted some of the most musically interesting and challenging, if short-lived, post-punk bands of their time, lyrically interrogating the ideological and ontological bases of capitalist consumption and their complicity in enforcing gender roles.  

Young Leeds trio Drahla reconfigures the vocabulary of those women and such bands as Gang of Four and Wire to thrilling effect on their debut album Useless Coordinates.  Singer Luciel Brown’s vocals at once declamatory and laconic, her guitar all razor sharp lines and machete chords, leads an ace rhythm section of Rob Riggs whose taut bass meshes hard with Mike Ainsley’s time shifting drums. Drahla find ways to revitalize this most mercurial of genres by going back to basics with experimental verve. XAM saxophonist Chris Duffin is the ace in the hole here, his contributions to Useless Connections never sound ornamental and it’s a measure of Drahla’s confidence that his playing is seamlessly integral. Not since Logic’s contribution to X-Ray Spex’s 1977 single “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” has the saxophone in punk sounded so elemental and dynamic.

Drahla ens avancen Under The Glass (2022)

Gènere: #punk #cançódeldia Drahla és una banda de Leeds amb esperit punk. A les acaballes del mes d’agost han donat senyals de vida, amb nou senzill titulat Under The Glass. Es tracta del primer avançament del seu àlbum debut, “Useless Coordinates”. Ens trobem amb un remolí desinhibit, amb efluvis del punk d’inicis dels anys noranta.

DRAHLA - Stimulus For Living (Official Video)

Artist:  Drahla

Title:  Useless Coordinates

Record Label: Captured Tracks

Release Date: 3rd May 2019

Rating: 8.0/10

It’s often said we’re a product of our environment and in the case of Drahla’s debut record ‘Useless Coordinates’, this statement couldn’t be more true. The LP had a chaotic inception, as studio and writing sessions were sandwiched in-amongst hectic touring commitments, supporting the likes of METZ and Ought, whilst appearing at Meltdown Festival upon personal request from The Cure’s Robert Smith. The album’s unconventional birth spawned its title and as vocalist/guitarist Luciel Brown states “’Useless Coordinates’ summarised all of our situations” referencing the upheaval felt by herself and fellow band members Rob Riggs (bass) and Mike Ansley (drums). “We had all these shows coming up and we knew we needed to leave our jobs and change our living situations to make all this stuff happen. So we had all these fixed points and timelines, and at the same time we felt quite lost within all of that.”

Each of the 10 tracks on ‘Useless Coordinates’ pose themselves as a conundrum waiting to be pieced together; with disparate components appearing sporadically throughout a song’s lifespan. It’s as if Drahla have dumped the contents of a puzzle box on a table, with the notion of abstractly combining these awkward facets together. Once the riddle has been solved, the song will abruptly end and then it’s onto the next chin-stroking art-rock brain-teaser. When bonus elements appear, like the sound of strangled saxophone, the difficulty level ante is upped to the next tier, with Drahla’s strategy of completing their next task becoming that bit trickier. ‘Serotonin Level’s on the surface is a lurching alt-rock rollercoaster but the addition of squalling brass, gives the song an added layer of obscurity. ‘Serenity’ is the band hastily attempting a sonic Rubik’s cube, with the tempo flitting from plodding noise to blink-and-you’ll-miss-it rapid fire. The added blasts of sax just enhance the bedlam. ‘React/Revolt’s elongated intro of lumbering bass and smoky, jazz screes, project an eeriness across the track, akin to playing sudoku whilst watching a grim detective series on Netflix. Without warning the drawn-out opening is usurped by an urgent punk energy, as if the need to complete another mind-boggling task has suddenly become a vital problem that must be solved immediately.

It’s a sense of controlled chaos that fuels the Leeds-formed band’s debut; an abstract mesh of caustic guitar shards, awkward drum patterns and throbbing bass cocoon Brown’s obscure lyrical imagery. With a nonchalant purr, the vocalist will randomly ruminate on “ancient Egypt in the palm of my hand”, as heard on ‘Pyramid Estate’, while lead single ‘Stimulus for Living’ ponders the eternal question “have you ever seen the sun in cellophane?” …well, there was this one time! Opener ‘Gilded Cloud’ opts for more penetrable wordplay, with Brown stating, “life is but a dream to me/as I have once heard” whilst capping off the track with “let’s build a stairway to the stars.” ‘Useless Coordinates’ very own curtain raiser plunges itself into choppy meta waters as Brown chimes about “synchronised chaos” as surges of alt-rock peak and trough with careless abandon.