- Melbourne band Black Cab have been around for nearly a decade now, writing powerful concept-driven krautrock with post-punk and electronic undertones. They have a unique sound and an identifiable voice: mixing European and Australian cultural references to create a recognizable music which is entirely their own. Since the first of their three albums the band has matured in production and technique, while their musical style, a mix of Joy Division, Kraftwerk, and Tangerine Dream, has almost never changed. Not so for their latest release, fourth album Games of the XXI Olympiad, where the electronic experiments of singles like Combat Boots and Sexy Polizei have expanded to encompass the album.

Swapping guitars for synthesizers is a brave move, even it isn’t always an improvement. You run the risk of alienating your established fanbase, or collapsing your developed sound into something more trivial or derivative than the work you’ve done before; but Black Cab have managed to avoid these pitfalls, maintaining the strength and individuality of their previous albums while moving forward into uncharted sonic terrain, coming up with a hybrid style of electronic dance and psychedelic drone closer to Trust or Nightsatan than Can or Cave, though clearly related to both.

Older fans should enjoy the continuation of tonal and narrative development represented by the new release, while new fans might be attracted to the increased importance of modern electronic dance influences, breathing new life into this traditionally more austere variety of music. While part of me misses the bleaker, more angular presence of previous album Call Signs, Games of the XXI Olympiad represents a stunning new direction for the band, and is sure to win them the all praise and new attention that they obviously deserve.

It’s not just an evolution for the artists, but a worthy innovation for the genre in-itself, taking the best parts of '70’s psychedelic post-punk and injecting them with contemporary influences, creating a new sound that builds upon, while simultaneously referencing the sounds that came before. It’s a strong, inventive new release. It'd be worth a listen even if the genre left you cold.

- Matthew Stoff.