Ist Ist – Dagger: Album Review

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Ist Ist rarely depart from their post-punk blueprint, confident in the atmospherics which at times are a substitute for melody.

Bottom line: do we even want to listen to happy music anymore?

Should “happy” be some kind of protected characteristic, facilitated by performative, fixed, no-thought-no-feelings niceness that’s only relatable for people on Instagram who live in Dubai?

Anyway, back to the point, which is that you may also be thinking it’s been a long time since Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights helped see in the post-punk revival.

And you’d be right; it was 22 years ago (almost) and, like shoegaze, it was a blast from the past which grew a multi generational half-life.

It’s not quite the same noise as Gang Of Four, Magazine or Echo and The Bunnymen spat out in the movement’s original late 70’s/early 80’s heyday of course but, for context, the drugs were cheaper and you couldn’t get a decent latte anywhere north of Potter’s Bar then.

Ist Ist are from Manchester, a city which knows enough about doomy roots as most of you reading this will know, but the quartet of Adam Houghton (vocals), Mat Peters (guitar), Andy Keating (bass) and Joel Kay (drums) have wisely let any comparisons to previous bands be the property of the beholder.

Instead, for kicks they’ve done the hard yards, self-releasing and building a following the old-fashioned way by getting out in front of people.

As any musician in the post-pandemic mess will tell you, seeing the whites of punters’ eyes in an impress me world is one of the hardest tests you can face.

And pass it they have, establishing a reputation at home and across Europe whilst putting themselves out there in support of 2024’s Top 30 charting release Light A Bigger Fire.

Despite success, for Houghton its successor’s title has extended meaning: “A dagger is a double-edged blade, as is life.”

“There is a lot of beauty and romance in the world but it’s also full of danger and violence. Our lives as musicians and artists are at times so rewarding but we walk the tightrope of being able to release our art into the world and it potentially coming crashing down the next day.”

Like much of the oeuvre, the sounds here are meant to be experienced under strobes and with chest pummelling bass, opener I Am The Fear setting out their dry-ice masked stall in all its subterranean glory and with Houghton summoning up menace to burn.

It’s a blueprint that Ist Ist rarely depart from, confident in the atmospherics which at times are a substitute for melody.

We’ve got this far after all without mentioning Editors, but the likes of Encouragement and Burning have a familiarity whose degree of pervasiveness will depend on how good your long-term memory is.

Now we’ve got the churlish bit out of the way, the counter argument – that the intended connections here are more basic- rings true; I Remember Everything might have Paul Banks’ lawyers hanging over their phone but it’s no less epic for it, whilst the closing salvo Song For Someone and Ambition offer some finesse and introspection.

Angsty yes, but lovers of that particular kind of history will remember that eventually even the most raincoated miserabilists eventually got over themselves, and it’s not so much a coincidence as ironic that Dagger’s apex is the energised synth pop of Warning Signs, a song which turns itself feverishly towards the light.

Does happy music make us happy, or even more sad for being happy?

Ist Ist haven’t got the answers, but Dagger finds them doing what makes them happy, which in these trying times might just have to be enough.

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