Kid Kapichi

Anybody familiar with the teeth-gnashing, blood-dripping punk snarl of Kid Kapichi knows about their ‘Fearless Nature’, so it should, at first glance, come as no surprise that the Hastings band’s fourth album should take that title.

The group that lacerated the anxious political zeitgeist with the partygate-bait of ‘Party At No. 10’ or challenged Kafkaesque Brexit disillusionment with ‘Can EU Hear Me’ have from day one stood out in their fearlessness when it comes to sticking their heads above the parapet.

Lean in closer to ‘Fearless Nature’, though, and something is different. On lead single ‘Stainless Steel’, when that album title first crosses the lips of frontman Jack Wilson, it is not in the form of a statement of defiance but in a moment of doubt.

“Are you scared of your fearless nature?” he sings, and it is clear the question is pointed at himself. “I’m not made of stainless steel,” goes the chorus. “I’m made of blood, I’m made of bone”.

Wilson describes ‘Stainless Steel’ as the bridge from the old Kid Kapichi to the new, and in its lethal, taut, muscular efficiency it certainly bears the hallmarks of the band’s classic sound, but the maturity of its point of view and the courage in its vulnerability is something new.