The Itch - It’s The Hope That Kills You

“What do you do when the world wants to start a war?” The Itch’s Simon Tyrie croons on the uncomfortably relevant, Talking Heads-like ‘Pirate Studios’. “Camden hasn’t been the same since the lock went up in smoke”, he playfully follows up, the song making for both a sorrowful statement of the current state of the world and city nightlife. It’s this gravitas that wrests The Itch’s debut from the fringes of pure satire and parody, its social commentary enveloped in a sardonic wit.

As its title gives away, ‘No More Sprechgesang’ offers a tongue-in-cheek namecheck to much of London’s grassroots sector, while musically presenting a metamorphosis of Bodega and Daft Punk. Opener ‘Space in the Cab’, meanwhile, takes Eurodance and acid house optimism to create something akin to if Confidence Man were formed in the rain-washed UK. Along with the chainsaw synth and griminess of ‘Aux Romanticiser’, the new wave-meets-acid house euphoria of ‘Ursula’, and the glitch-funk of ‘Switch It Off’, ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’ is a sonic time capsule of gallows humour and knowing winks set to a soundtrack of rave pop: a debut of delightful dynamism.