Despite going into battle under a name that suggests some sort of horrific jazz odyssey-toting seventies beard n’rollneck sweater ensemble, Ian Blurton’s Future Now have come up with one of the most absorbing, interesting and downright lovable albums 2024 has thrown up so far.

Indeed, to this writer’s battered and bruised mind at least, it’s an absolute crime that the band is only releasing three hundred units of this album on vinyl – alongside a ‘super-limited edition’ of cassettes, because, quite frankly, every house in the kingdom should own a copy of Crimes of the City.

I shit you not; Pound for pound, if it’s seventies-obsessed, intelligent metal you’re in the market for, then look no further. And, having seen Sentinel Daily‘s swollen readership figures every time we feature a band from that now distant decade – or sound like  that’s where they come from, at the very least, I know there’s a lot of you in that particular space. Like I said, look no further, because tracks like In Broken Lines, with it’s tasteful borrowing from Michael Schenker, or the throbbing, pulsating Seventh Seal of Devotion, which draws intelligently from the Blue Öyster Cult playbook, are going to keep you happy a fair way into the future if I’m any judge…

The short and sharp blast of Nocturnal Transmissions sounds like American rockers Gamma jousting with Judas Priest somewhere out in the starways,  whilst Ace Frehley looms large over School’s In; But final track Assailed By The Sun is where everything works best as the band draw together all the threads of into one final, glorious tapestry. It’s powerful, it’s melodic, it’s supremely clever in both ambition and execution, and it’s entirely impossible to resist.

The band draw deep from the well of the past, for sure, but this absolutely isn’t an exercise in slavish reproduction; Sensibly, and in direct opposition to the prevailing winds to be found in the source material, the band keep things taut, tight and on point, never sliding into the mire of self-indulgence even though they clearly possess the skills to do so. There isn’t a song on Crimes of the City that even reaches the four minute mark, meaning that everything here sounds urgent, and, most importantly, relevant to any modern ears that might come across it. In short, I can’t find anything to moan about – and I implore you to wrap your lugs around this stunning album as soon as you can…

 

Crimes of the City releases on November 15th.