Radio 4 'Enemies Like This' album

It only takes a few seconds of Enemies Like This, the title track to Radio 4’s new album, to realize that the Brooklyn-based band has returned with all cylinders fired up and with a rejuvenated sense of purpose. Radio 4 have never been ones to shy away from making a loud noise or issuing a firm statement, but on Enemies Like This, they’ve both streamlined and stretched their sound, they’ve cut the fat, trimmed the filler, and focused on the meat that makes the music, not the spices that can bury it. Enemies Like This is the album long awaited by all those who know that, up to now, Radio 4’s strongest impression has been made from the stage.

“The idea behind the record,” notes singer and bassist Anthony Roman, “was to get as close to what we sound like live and to record as live as possible. We rehearsed from July until December at the Salt Mines in Dumbo, Brooklyn, where we wrote about 16 songs and narrowed it down to what we thought were the best ten - or the ten that made the best album. We then recorded one song each day: most of the final tracks are just first or second take.”

Radio 4’s path to this moment of clarity/salvation/simplicity is hardly atypical, though of course the story is very much their own... A New York punk band finds itself at the end of a cul-de-sac, and certain members regroup in Brooklyn, attracted by that borough’s youthful, cultural vitality. One of those members opens a small record store in a run-down part of Park Slope that, several years later, will come to be considered the most fashionable shopping street in town. The group’s songwriting duly expanded by the sounds of that street, and by nights spent in clubs where people actually dance, the newly named trio, Radio 4, sets out its stall in 2000 with a low-budget debut indie album, The New Song And Dance. Few pay attention, but a fiery follow-up, Gotham! (2002), finds them hitting their stride at the ideal moment – a post 9/11 milieu in which new New York bands are the toast of a global indie-rock post-punk funk-off dance floor. Songs like “Save Our City,” “Calling All Enthusiasts” and “Start A Fire” resonate way beyond the NYC borders, and it doesn’t harm that Gotham features the production credits of a new studio duo called DFA. As the single “Dance To The Underground” becomes an international cross-over club classic, the group expands via percussion and keyboards to become a dynamic five-piece known for explosive, sweat-inducing live shows… and, almost inevitably, a third album (Stealing Of A Nation, 2004) suffers from over-ambition and over-calculation, even as songs like “Party Crashers,” “State Of Alert” and “Absolute Affirmation” continue to raise the group’s profile.

In the period that follows, original guitarist Tommy Williams leaves the group, paving the way for a hungry replacement, Dave Milone, who helps manouvre the sound away from overtly stated influences into a necessarily new direction. Tours with The Libertines, Gang Of Four and The Raveonettes, plus rousing festival appearances from Coachella in California to Homelands in Britain and Benicassim in Spain, all confirm the wisdom of the line-up change and the strength of purpose that lies at the group’s core. The band signs to Astralwerks not just for America but the world, changes management, and determines to record their new album while the new line-up’s morale is riding so high.

To this end, Radio 4 stayed out of big studios for Enemies Like This. They recorded the backing tracks in December 2005 in an industrial section of Williamsburg (Headgear Studios), and added overdubs in the basement of a converted factory in Park Slope (the sarcastically named Seaside Lounge). For production, they brought over from London Jagz Kooner, a founding member of The Aloof and Sabres of Paradise known also for his radical mixes for Primal Scream, Kasabian, Soulwax and others. Radio 4 had struck up a friendship with Kooner on their travels, noting his innate understanding of how rock music can groove without getting all cerebral or convoluted about it. The working relationship felt right from the very beginning, and in January, proceedings moved to an infamous building in London called the Fortress, where Kooner bunkered down with Radio 4’s keyboard player Gerard Garone to add subtle synth patches and electronic atmospherics, while never losing track of the band’s live performances. Mixing duties were completed at The Fortress by Kooner and the album’s original engineer Jon Gray.

Enemies Like This came in ten songs and 43 minutes long – like albums used to be back when they were spread over two sides of vinyl and there was no space to bury your mistakes. As much as these ten songs are devoid of filler, they’re also thrillingly diverse. Try and spot the influences – Anthony Roman is about to openly cop to some of them – but don’t presume to peg this band. Radio 4 are proud of the scene from which they emerged, but with Enemies Like This, they’ve become very much their own entity.

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ENEMIES LIKE THIS: SONG-BY-SONG

“Lyrically, we tried to be less overtly political and sloganeering,” notes Anthony Roman of Enemies Like This. “We tried to write in a style more influenced by the beat(nik)s and the idea of ‘spontaneous prose,’ whereby the first thing you think of gets jotted down and considered. Often these ideas worked themselves into the song. Of course there are political/social ideas, but there are more personal songs than ever. I was very into the idea that a political song could be a love song in disguise or vice versa.”

1) Enemies Like This: The first song written with the album in mind and also the first song we ever wrote with Dave in the band. We debuted it in Tampa, Florida and three people came up to me and said it was the best song we ever wrote. The "enemy” we're referring to is more the one that you don't recognize. Basically it's about how people who should be your strongest ally-like family and friends-often end up doing the most damage.

2) Packing Things Up On The Scene: Our interest in Bowie/Eno/Talking Heads has been around for a long time but we never really incorporated it into the sound. This is our attempt at that. It's about how corruption is so ingrained in our culture that it is pretty much expected and accepted as "normal." This puts unfair pressure on future generations - “the diamonds” referred to at the end.

3) Too Much To Ask For: Debuted at a Hurricane Katrina benefit at Southpaw in Brooklyn last August. Previously called ‘Government,’ Gerard came up with the guitar riff, after which it took months to sort out the arrangement. Simply put: food and shelter have to become human rights.

4) Grass Is Greener: Sonically I was thinking of the band House of Love and how bands like them and The Bunnymen would write these really cool sounding love songs. Re-worked in the studio from a tribal swirling thing to a more German-influenced rhythm. Lyrically it touches on the idea that when it's five o'clock in the morning you should just go home to the person who loves you and not to the after hours.

5) Everything's In Question: A love song using military metaphors and expressing the unease one feels living in western society. Stylistically I'm real happy with this one because I think it may be the most unique sounding song we’ve done. Great guitar work from Milone, who says it’s his favorite on the album.

6) This Is Not A Test: Tribal funk workout with deliberately repetitive lyrics. PJ came up with the big vocal part at the end, which is my favorite thing on the record. Created late in the evening at Seaside Lounge followed by cocktails at Buttermilk. Also recorded very live – we really tried to get the feel of PJ and Greg and the bass happening at the same time.

7) Ascension Street: Started out really fast, but works better as a reggae vibe. We try to get into the reggae/dance-hall world at least a couple of times per record. Lyrically we're talking about gentrification and the arrival of corporate greed (i.e Bruce Ratner) in Brooklyn and how we need a ‘freaky utopia’ for everyone to go - artists, musicians, Djs, party people… the more the merrier.

8) Always A Target: Written on a piano on Fire Island, and features some cool guitar playing by Phil Mossman of LCD Soundsystem. It’s a comment on the commentators. What does Vonnegut say? Criticizing a work of art is like putting on a suit of armor and tackling an ice cream sundae… Or something like that.

9) All In Control: The last song written for the album, it had a funny period where no one could agree on where the "one" was. Jagz gave it a nice kind of MIA rhythmic quality that I really enjoy. The song is a plea to those in charge: "Can you fix this mess already?" Some have called it the weirdest Radio 4 song ever. We'll see.

10) As Far As The Eye Can See: A more positive take on the Katrina disaster. There's also a bit of a Robin Hood thing going on. It was really important that we conclude the album on a positive vibe and the ending to this song is so uplifting there was no question it would close things out. PJ, whose kalimba playing is just beautiful there at the end, calls it a Bay Ridge groove. South Brooklyn!

Anthony Roman - bass, vocals
Dave Milone - guitar,vocals
Gerard Garone - guitar,keyboards
P.J. O'connor - percussion, vocals
Greg Collins - drums

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Radio 4 - Enemies Like This