As we know, musicians are a strange breed and putting several well-known names together is no sure sign of success. It’s a fine science and the job of fusing those chemicals in just the right proportions could turn Einstein’s hair grey. Therefore, when I heard that past and present members of Grand Theft Audio, Prodigy, and Hey Hello! were joining forces under the moniker Concrete Hyena I knew things would either shine and sparkle or fall flat and fizzle out. On hearing their debut EP, Future Primitives, I’m pleased to report that things fall very much in the first camp and they’ve served up seven songs which suggests their future will be full of mayhem.
Concrete Hyena are very much the sum of their individual parts and they each bring a little of their musical lineage to this project. However, the sound they create is wholly original; each member’s unique take on music is placed in a particle collider then switched to full spin, fused into new and unusual shapes and the result is the seven songs comprising their debut EP. Indicative of the band’s approach is opening track ‘Patchwork Guilt’. There’s no time to waste of preambles or elongated introductions, it appears without warning and hits the listener like a surprise left hook. Synths slice through the air, scything with razor sharp precision before the vocals kick in and Concrete Hyena march like an invading army. As befits a band’s first extended play, Future Primitives makes a most violent entrance, it finds them planting their flag and staking out musical territory, almost daring you to try and take it back. Think the visceral rage of early Killing Joke filtered through the industrial leanings of Nine Inch Nails and delivered with the sensibility of Future Sound Of London and you’d have something approaching the sound of Future Primitives. Yet any comparisons with other artists are merely signposts, Concrete Hyena’s influences are so varied, their roots so tangled and intertwined, that it’s hard to trace their origins. Case in point being ‘The Last Song We’ll Ever Sing’, the whistled motif pays homage to Nine Inch Nail’s ‘Head Like A Hole’, but placed within a new frame it takes on new meaning, and typical of the brashness they display, Concrete Hyena claim ownership, and who’s going to argue?
Future Primitives is a shapeshifter that’s in perpetual motion; ‘Cut Me Mick’ is an amphetamine-fuelled blast of electronica, whilst ‘Dark Times On Floor 94’ is disconcerting and discombobulating, and in between the band flex their muscles with ‘Guns And Ammo’. Despite this constant flux Future Primitives is a release that hangs together as a cohesive whole, its eclecticism is the common thread that runs throughout. Such is the encompassing nature of this release that it will leave a huge chasm in your life when final track ‘Oddball’ fades into the ether, but don’t worry; you’ll soon be hitting “play” again. The Future belongs to Concrete Hyena.
- Future Primitives is released on 31st July 2026 (available here).
- Official Website
Track List:
- Patchwork Guilt
- Hi! I’m Radio Mike
- The Last Song We’ll Ever Sing
- Cut Me Mick
- Guns And Ammo
- Dark Times On Floor 94
- Oddball
