If you came upon FOR AGAINST in total ignorance and heard their debut album "Echelons" without any prior information, you'd almost stake your savings it had been released by Factory in the early '80s.
It's all there: the metre and melody-supporting basslines a la Peter Hook; the expansive, mountaintop-strafing guitars, the busy, percussive drumming and Jeffrey Runnings' angelic and slightly forlorn vocals. Throw in an attractive, understated sleeve featuring a lone wheatsheaf that reeks of Peter Saville and a shadowy photo of three earnest young men inside (one of whom looks scarily like OMD'S Andy McClusky) and - ergo - you are surely listening to a forgotten piece of the dour, early '80s post-punk jigsaw from the North of England. Fair cop, yeah?
Nope, wrong entirely. Because in reality FOR AGAINST hail from Lincoln, Nebraska, originally released "Echelons" in 1987 when several of their other obvious Anglophile contemporaries such as The Chameleons and The Sound were about to spontaneusly combust, and have since sustained a sporadic, but popular underground career in the US, releasing their sixth and most recent) album "Coalesced" on this very label during 2002. Just goes to show what jumping to conclusions can do, huh?
Still, once you've got over the shock, the re-issued "Echelons" is a decent record. It's undeniably in thrall to its' UK peers, but that doesn't stop a slew of tracks impressing, especially at a time when the UK is embracing such windswept, serious youths as The Open as fresh young contenders.
"Echelons" best moments are invariably when the band take it at a fair clip. Opener "Shine", is excellent, with the omnipresent bass thrum amped up to glory and Harry Dingman's spiky, bullish guitar favourably recalling Adrian Borland. It's compelling, hypnotic stuff, and a similar approach does wonders for the likes of "Get On With It", the nagging, percussive "Autocrat" and "Loud And Clear", which - despite the icy blast of keyboards drifting in from the Urals - is about as perky and bracing as this lot get. Fine stuff.
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Elsewhere, though, the circling darkness gets too cloying for comfort. The title track, for instance, is moody to the point of po-faced pretension and is way too murky and dirge-like, while "Forget Who You Are" may be superficially dark and animated, but ultimately sounds like an out-take from The Wake's first album. Not the best place to end up, it must be said. Fortunately, they keep the epic "Broke My Back" in reserve, which may initially seem oppressively lengthy at over seven minutes, but is glisteningly powerful stuff nonetheless.
At the time of writing, your reviewer has no knowledge of the rest of For Against's catalogue, so can't shed light on exactly where they've been since here. However, whilst "Echelons" is undoubtedly flawed, it's a pretty fair introduction to a band from America's sparse heartland who are spiritually as much at home in Manchester as Minneapolis.
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