It’s five years since Campag Velocet’s debut, Bon Chic Bon Genre, an idiosyncratic blend of surrealist poetry, queasy psychedelia and baggy backbeats. Fuelled by twin obsessions with A Clockwork Orange and professional cycling, it enjoyed no more than marginal, cultish success.
With It’s Beyond Our Control, however, the band are back and very much meaning business. Pete Voss’ thuggish, drawled wordplay?part Mark E Smith, part Shaun Ryder?is still central, but Campag Velocet have updated their sound with darkly edgy guitar work and post-techno texturing. Thus, “Sunset Strip Eclipse” appropriates Joy Division’s gloomy disco, and engagingly groovy closer “Ain’t No Funki Tangerine” segues into an ambient house outro. Curiously compelling?and cleverly controlled?stuff.