Algiers is a band mostly from Atlanta that was formed in London and named after a city in North Africa. It now has ties to both England and New York. The band mixes ominous industrial rock and no-wave sounds with the fervor of gospel. It’s post-punk soul. It’s one part Terence Trent D’Arby and one part P.I.L. Or maybe it’s Culture Club meets Radiohead. A more recent point of connection might be the deeply experimental music of TV on the Radio (another transAtlantic project), but with a much darker palette.
The quartet, which includes former Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong, released its second album, “The Underside of Power,” last year. And, as with the band’s name itself, one gets the sense that the musicians are interested in issues of cultural hegemony, colonialism, histories of oppression, disinformation and the manipulation of public opinion by mass media. This is the kind of artsy, angsty and angular American band that tends to do better in Great Britain than in the U.S.
Frontman Franklin James Fisher, an African-American, is outspoken and provocative about the manufactured presentations of blackness in American pop culture. Part of him is a critic at heart, but he’s got a microphone and a voice that catches your attention.
Algiers performs at the Front Room of Space Ballroom, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden, on Wednesday, Sept. 19, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 to $14. 203-288-6400, spaceballroom.com
