Label Review.
2020 album. Also available on CD.
Our Overview.
Warrington and London combo Extradition Order launch their post punk/Motown album on the life of J Robert Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb, with the aid of 5 associated indie labels. ‘American Prometheus’ is a co-release between the labels: Gare Du Nord, Blang, Jezus Factory, Helen Llewelyn Product 19 and I Blame The Parents.
“A Northern Soul album about the atomic bomb” is how the band have referred to it during its creation. After their astute post-indie dissection of the Kennedy dynasty on their previous album, the bands obsession with US politics and history turns to the life and career of J Robert Oppenheimer around the Manhattan Project and the development of the first A-bomb. The songs cover the science a little, but also Oppenheimer’s private and political life and legacy - the album concludes with the reminder that he was nominated for a Nobel Prize three times but never won it.
Musically the band have taken their often angular dramatic post-punk energy and concentrated it into concise indie beat music that has clear Motown influences, as well as some of the barely contained but danceable terror of bands like The Pop Group or more recently Black Country New Road. On top of that, the unisex lead vocals (Alastair Harper, Anoushka Kenley and Rosie Beard) can conjure up moments of sheer gothic rock and roll abandon - think The Rocky Horror Show meets the B-52s. The album is dedicated to Extradition Order founder member Nick Boardman who sadly passed away in 2018 but whose bass hooks and singing run through this record at its foundations.
Tracklisting: Daddy, Give Me Your Money / I Wanted More / Baby, What Have You Done For Me Lately? / A New Set Of Rules / America First / I’ve Got A Gang, I’ve Got A Club / Manhattan / Fat Boy, Thin Man / Pills And The Party / Do I Love You? / No Nobel