ESCAPE-ISM

The man, the myth, the Psychic Soviet, Ian Svenonious and the lovely Sandi Denton are Escape-ism: a power-duo subversion of the rock ‘n’ roll band, and a protest against the lack of protesters.  Svenonius has had his thrills before with The Make-Up (check out their 2019 reunion tour coverage here), as well as Chain & The Gang, but Escape-ism is his most recent iteration of the contemporary literary rebel outlaw, which is as lo-fi as Link Wray or Suicide, with a post-punk political bent á la Wire or Gang Of Four, mixed with a little well-heeled Stooges frisson.  Laying down pelvic-floor groove tracks like “Black Gold” (which according to Svenonius is the, “…First song protesting electric cars”) or the anti-toxic masculinity screed, “Born With A Woman’s Intuition”, or the titrated-pure anti-establishmentarian, “Rome Wasn’t Burned In A Day”, Svenonius is the svengali of the post-nostalgic underground intelligentsia…plus those matching crimson suits are the sempiternal ‘fit.  Re-releasing their 2020 album The Lost Record at Kilowatt, Escape-ism is something to ponder over and dance to, days and weeks after the show.