This article was published in 2015.

Azores debut seven-song self-titled album now available to buy at bandcamp.

Azores occupy a unique space somewhere between afrobeat, psyche rock and post-punk, with influences ranging from the No Wave movement pioneered in New York during the 1980s by bands such as Liquid Liquid, James Chance and The Dance, to 1990s US bands Heroic Doses and Golden, Afrobeat players such as Ebo Taylor, Victor Uwaifo and Fela Kuti and Sublime Frequencies bands such as Group Inerane.

'Into The Azores High' starts with a four-to-the-floor Afrobeat dance then twists and turns through heavily syncopated time shifting post-punk, eventually climaxing with all-out punk rock riffing. 'Straight Outta Tokyo' works in much the same way, and both songs share similar space to that occupied by bands such as Zun Zun Egui. The psyche-rock of 'My Way Or Steve Highway' suggests a more direct influnce from Golden's 'Recital (Spindac Volare)' from their 2000 album Golden Summer.

Azores' songs possess an innate, playful post-funk rhythmic momentum, as if Gavin Montgomery's bass guitar itself is hooked around Matt Woodward's drum kit to form a single instrument, propelling the sound forward with a joyous syncopated and polyrhythmic fervour. Matt Dixon's guitar playing sounds equal parts D. Boon, Alex Minoff and Billy Dolan, sometimes plucking punk funk or soloing on one note, other times centred around African Bikutsi melody.