Future Of The Left - Polymers Are Forever

Our prevailing image of the archetypal Future Of The Left fan is one of equal violence and paranoia, the kind of person who’d show up out of nowhere wearing a tin foil hat, knuckledusters and nothing else. It was always a risky business making music that would appeal to this notional niche but, two magnificent studio albums down the line, the Cardiff three-piece seemed not only to know exactly what was required, but how to make it appeal to a more marketable audience too.

Then bassist Kelson Mathias left, and it all seemed a little less sure. After a hasty recruitment drive, the remaining band doubled in size, and now we have this new six-track EP, a signpost (if not blueprint) for an upcoming third LP. We’re happy to report that the marketable fans will be pleased, and the nude guy will be happier than ever – ‘Polymers Are Forever’ is insane, and in a completely fantastic way.

The title track begins as a steel toecapped serenade before falling into itself and becoming something akin to a troglodytic chant, synth keys crawl like imaginary ants under the punk skin of ‘With Apologies To Emily Pankhurst’ and the out-of-time squawks of the ‘New Adventures’ intro sound like nothing less than evil Muppets. The whole record flickers constantly; between short blasts and lengthier stories, squalls of noise and eerie melodic sections, slit-eyed witticisms (“He’d loved a racist once / she kept a tidy house”) and slack-jawed babbles (“Three men walk into a mouse / A blue Mouse / That was a joke - there’s no such thing as blue”).

The upshot of all this is a tumult of ideas - musical and lyrical - that defy interrogation just as they warrant it. Without a grounding on which to stand, the listener gets swept up, carried along as much by their own interest as anything else. These are clarion calls for mental illness, anthems for the unhinged and frankly, we doubt even the band know where they’re headed next. Future Of The Left remain baffling and, by association, bafflingly wonderful.