Full of perceptive humour and storming riffs, Bureau De Change have been quickly turning heads in the UK’s thriving post-punk scene in their relatively short time as a band, showing off their brilliant live presence at support slots with up-and-coming favourites Knives and Peach. Now, on their debut EP, the quartet are ready to translate their raucous live show into an equally rip-roaring recorded experience complete with wry social commentary and hefty instrumentals.
Despite only lasting for four relatively swift tracks, Are You Flirting With Me? covers plenty of sonic ground from artsy dissonance and thoughtful, poetic lyrics to stomping riffs and cathartic screams. Frontwoman Flora Kimberly takes centre stage with a vocal delivery that lies somewhere between Joe Talbot of Idles and Ren Aldridge of feminist post-hardcore icons Petrol Girls, waxing poetic with a stabbing shout that cuts through the chaos like a machete. Despite immediately fitting into the flourishing post-punk world Bureau De Change stand head and shoulders above the countless faux-edgy, privately educated post-punk boy bands thanks to a no nonsense approach to their unfiltered noise.
Some songs need a library’s worth of scholars to paw through cryptic lyrics and decipher deep meanings; EP highlight ‘Shaken, Not Stirred’ is not one of those songs. Kimberly lays out the track’s thesis with six jabbing, shouted words “James Bond is a fucking prick”, taking aim at the secret agent’s disposable view of women and the culture that glamourises it. Using Bond as a framing device the band take aim at a misogynist society that pushes violent incel ideals against a backdrop of a stomping rhythm section and quickfire guitar stabs. While obtuse lyrics can be a great way to weave deeper meaning into an artist’s work, Bureau De Change show that sometimes a sledgehammer is more effective than a scalpel.
While most of Are You Flirting With Me? takes the listener on a relentless ride of blazing post-punk, the track ‘Arry Goes To The Pub’ takes on a measured, narratively led feel which offers a more deliberately paced, thoughtful contrast to all the upbeat noise. Bureau De Change paint a detailed, morbid picture of the titular ‘Arry, a “stereotypical geezer” who drinks alone down the local pub which, despite the bleak descriptions of the subject’s life, never quite veers into mean spirited punching down, instead attempting to get stuck into the headspace of working class men and the common mental health problems they suffer in silence with. Despite deviating from their usual style, Bureau De Change put their all into this descriptive, story driven structure, flaunting their wide-ranging songwriting ability.
Are You Flirting With Me? gives a small peek into a band that may soon be seen as a standout among the crowded post-punk genre with a witty sense of humour and an ear for noise. Bringing spitting, politically-driven rage back to a genre saturated with smug intellectuals, Bureau De Change make an explosive first impact.