Look at the Powerful People is the culmination of years of work from the Ritson brothers and one of the most socially aware, politically charged debuts of recent years. Gone are the days of their LCD Soundsystem-influenced earlier releases, with the album made up of ten tracks that did not feature on any of the earlier EPs. The band had a clear vision of what they wanted this record to be and the result is a concise, life-affirming 40 minutes of solid grooves, punk attitude and vigorous social insight.

Their sonic experiments have manifested into something darker and, with it, has come an album that bares influences from almost every musical avenue possible. Whether it be funk, reggae, trip-hop, disco, house or metal you can hear elements from a horde of genres in this album. Recorded in a concise two-week period at Strongroom studios in London with Ben Baptie and Leon Vynehall, the band did as much of it live and “in the moment” as possible in order to retain the authenticity and realism of the song topics. This is evident in first track ‘Drugs’- as joyous as it is irate, the pulsating bass framework of the former single is a cocktail of murky dance tempos and fierce energy.

Meanwhile, ‘Powerful People’ is the closest the band come to replicating their dance-punk of earlier days, with its memorable chorus and cowbell-led finale. Whilst ‘Pleasure’ is Friendly Fires if they were more interested in government policy than weekends in the French capital. The nostalgic ‘Back Then’ dines off a Motown-esque groove and builds into a cacophony of instrumentation before ‘Buy and Sell’ sees the bass and drums aggressively tussling for superiority whilst simultaneously creating an instantaneous funky hook under the backdrop of Ritson’s deliberations on modern consumerism.

With its slower pace, ‘On the Board’ then feels like the quintessential Formation song in which all of their best characteristics mould together perfectly: solid beats, radical structures, memorable lyrics and frantic rhythms. ‘A Friend’ is the album’s catchiest number, however, with the jacked up disco-infused stomper’s five note keyboard line instantly imprinted on your brain from the outset. At the other extreme, ‘Blood Red Hand’ is an understated, slow-burning anthem, while album closer ‘Ring’ offers something entirely different with a dreamy, piano-orientated approach that closes the album on a euphoric high.

With all the fanfare that proceeded the album: gorilla marketing, interactive videos, the public Whatsapp number, subliminal advertising, an independently produced magazine – the pressure was on the Londoners to deliver a meaningful record. They’ve easily surpassed that expectation. “For me, the album is a power that relates to the security that I found when I was young and hanging with my outsider friends. We had no money and no scene but we didn’t care because we had each other. We began to ask questions of the world and started to rebel about what we could or couldn’t do or say,” explained Ritson. He and had his brother had a clear, definitive vision of what they wanted the LP to be and the result is a repertoire of genuine, thought-provoking songs containing facets from a multitude of influences, but still retaining originality. It’s a debut album that transcends music with a diversity that can bring sub-cultures together and unite as one. Formation have achieved what they set out to do.
Paul Hill

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