Frenchy and the Punk - Hypnotized (EA Recordings)

Post-punk, as a genre, a point in time, a sound, and a scene, has had a legacy that endures perhaps more so than most. Punk ended, in any meaningful way that you care to measure it, in about 1978, and post-punk is, as the name suggests, the part of the sonic story, the next musical chapter that came after that. The fact that it is now nearly fifty years after the event is just a mere detail. Post-punk is here to stay. And then some.

Whereas its forebear now seems to be just a tribute to its younger, angrier self, and the likes of pop and indie, dance and dance seem, for the most part, rehashing what has gone before, post-punk as a genre still seems to be genuinely inventive, healthy and looking to the future rather than wallowing in past glories. And Frenchy and the Punk is a classic example of why that is.

It would be easy to accuse the band of being a bit too wedded to the sound of bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, and I’m sure that they would be the first to admit that some of their influence and inspiration comes from those quarters. But, like that iconic band, theirs is an ever-changing, ever-exploratory, ever-evolving, ever-exciting sound that touches on many other sounds and styles too. Not to mention no small amount of originality and forward-thinking.

“Hypnotise,” their new album, shows these blends, everything from post-punk energies to gothic shade, a dark-folk delicacy to new-wave abrasiveness, in full flow. As the first release as a precursor to their eighth album, Midnight Garden, it does precisely what a lead single should do: make us excited for that long-player’s imminent arrival.

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