It was a painful affair during the Tilburg Incubate festival in 2014. There the legendary post-punk quartet Gang Of Four emptied the room. That didn't even have much to do with the music but rather with the integrity of the spectacle. Besides guitarist Andy Gill, not a single original member was on stage anymore, even vocalist Jon King was replaced by the much younger John Sterry. No face! Gill is
… also the only member of yesteryear on What Happens Next, the group's ninth album, but actually a Gill album in disguise. On guitar he sounds like old times and like no other angular and biting in eleven hip songs with solid beats and touches of electronics that are not inferior to the better work of bands that - ouch! - were once inspired by Gang Of Four, such as Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand. Guest vocalists such as Alisson Mosshart (The Kills, The Dead Weather), Robbie Furze (The Big Pink) and Herbert Grönemeyer give, purely for who they are, some right to exist to this album that is certainly not bad but inevitably overshadowed by the passionate legacy of the original Gang Of Four. (MR)more
