Fontaines D.C. – Dogrel review

People talk a lot these days about identity, about standing for something and wearing it, as if by defining yourself so imprecisely it will be some kind of help to others in understanding you.

Fontaines D.C. are a quintet who on Dogrel set no price on simply being, but insist they’re instead part of bio-organism which contains one part them and one part their home city of Dublin, a place being ravished or ravaged depending on your point of view by the groping hands of progress.

Anchored by the vernacular lense of singer Grian Chatten, this is a band who graft a musical Frankenstein from street poetry, runaway guitars and the cacophonous hum of the righteous. Shrugging at the hype already thrown their way, they may declare false ambition on Big, but it’s the centrifugal Hurricane Laughter that cements Dogrel’s position as one of the year’s finest debuts – and stands for an identity all it’s own.

You can read the full review here.