Altsounds - Black Bikini Alpha - Grand Madness [Album]

With their infectious and exciting sound, Black Bikini Alpha are taking the music world by storm. With only 2 band members it is pretty impressive to hear that they don't lack any kind of musical power or drive. Their latest release is a strong British record titled ‘Grand Madness’.

‘Grand Madness’ is an 11 track strong collection of radio friendly punk mixed with slightly ‘pop’ sounding songs which is sure to make any fan of the Arctic Monkeys or Bloc Party get excited. From the album's opener ‘Swag’, to the closer ‘The Big Something’, 'Grand Madness' is an album of non-stop rock that touches on a wide range of subjects from generally growing up, to the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London. 'Grand Madness' is in general an easy listen, providing catchy vocals and showing some brilliant song writing craftsmanship. Black Bikini Alpha's gritty distorted guitar riff's provide them with an edge but the odd synthesizer thrown in for good measure ensures 'Grand Madness' will appeal to more than one type of music lover. I will say though that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of new ideas in play on 'Grand Madness' and this release doesn’t seem to step away from the qualities (or sometimes like there of) that make British Indie what it is today. That being said, 'Grand Madness' is still worth checking out, make no mistake of that.

As previously stated, 'Grand Madness' is strongly influenced by the music scene here in the UK and any listener can tell this from the get go. Black Bikini Alpha seem to be expanding their horizons extremely fast, recently touring New York City (humorously arranged by a schizophrenic fan), as well as getting a large amount of radio play and opening tours for acts such as Fun Loving Criminals and Feeder. It seems Black Bikini Alpha are on the fast track all the way to the top.