Robocobra Quartet

★★★★ Living Isn’t Easy FIRST TASTE. CD/DL/LP

Jazz, punk and political despair infuse Belfast outfit’s sharp treatise on modernity.

A band that mixed and matched feral punk, free jazz and acerbic social commentary while Black Country, New Road were in short trousers, the relatively unsung Robocobra Quartet have got better and more bitter on album three. As before, Nathan Rodgers’ bass lands the biggest hooks as a trio of sax players weave between drummer/singer Chris Ryan’s twitchy Ian MacKaye/Gordon Gano sprechgesang on the jackhammer rallies of stockbroker confessional Heaven, buzzsaw attack of Plant and Patrick Bateman blankness of Wellness (a tapestry of influencers’ daily routines). Elsewhere, Chromo Sud’s flurrying brass jolts and breakbeats add spiritual sustenance to its weary repeated mantra: “Shit house, shit flat, got keys, got out.” A whip-smart confluence of observation, poise and flow, Living Isn’t Easy is a storied triumph.