The Imbeciles round off their tour supporting Killing Joke with new album Imbecilica. Spend some time with it, because it’s ace.

The Anglo-American Imbeciles are enigmatic writer/guitarist Butch Dante’s creation, with a history of being vividly reborn. In chrysalis form they were a conventional punk band, Wartoad, till a Californian tour finished at an ex-biker roadhouse, whose former denizens were still inclined to dig up guns and bury bodies in the surrounding desert. Improvising with extreme freedom at what felt like the end of the world, The Imbeciles were born here.

Or so they say. We don’t believe every word.

What we do know is they were a damn good foil for Killing Joke when we saw them in Liverpool last month.

This week they release the album Imbecilica.

Produced by Killing Joke’s Youth (who also plays bass on the album), this is a work that has a distinctly US feel to the rocking out – and there’s nothing wrong with that – but you can see (well, hear) why Youth wanted to get involved.

Think New York Dolls, Gaslight Anthem, The Replacements all in the same room and you’re getting close. Full of energy and anger, yet thoughtful at the same time. A comment on the world in which we live right now. The band describe the recording process as a post punk heaven. We’d struggle to better that.

Save this from Dante about Youth’s studio: “It’s on a mountain on Spain’s southern coast, where Youth has built a big compound with Moroccan-style minarets. It’s quite chaotic, with incredibly esoteric furniture, art and books. You climb up a ladder to a sorcerer’s library in a tower dedicated to music. It’s got a huge, sunken sitting room with a big fire, and a pool. When we got there, it was just me, John Kent and Youth. For three days we just ate food and talked, listened to music and watched Kubrick movies – and Final Destination! – and decided what we were going to do. The rest of the band turned up and plugged in, and things started happening.”

From there the second Imbeciles album was created. You can tell. It’s a belter.

The album is out now in all the usual places. Most recent single, You’re Gonna Wanna is below.