Radio 4: Gotham! : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Why "Radio 4"? Because it's a Public Image Ltd. song title, apparently, and because the name Gang of Four was already taken by the last band that worked this particular turf: brittle funk rhythms, ice-pick guitar and New Wave vocal affectations. Those two predecessors have taught them how to hit crisply and where to leave space -- the reggaefied tippy-tap drums of "Red Lights Again" just make Tommy Williams' guitar sound more like splintering sheet metal. As much as they've copped from the golden age of British post-punk (spot the riffs!), Radio 4 grew up in the East Coast emo scene, and this second album finds them revving their death-disco beats up toward full-throttle rock. Still, the deepest grooves of Gotham! are often the most derivative: The sinuous guitar dub of "Pipe Bombs" and the Zapp-via-Entertainment! workout "End of the Rope" are as much fun now as they would've been twenty years ago.

DOUGLAS WOLK
(RS 894 - April 25, 2002)