“Who am I, when everything is me?” so sings Jon King on “Who Am I” from Content. For some people, post-punk band Gang of Four are the guys responsible for the seminal album, Entertainment! influencing R.E.M., Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Franz Ferdinand, to name a few. For others they’re a bunch of sell-outs, having made a crust by singing about anti-capitalism and anti-consumerism (both yesterday and today) and yet they’ve licensed their music to Microsoft for a commercial. Others still may argue they’re now Gang of Two and while they are up to their third coming (remember they were active in the late seventies to early eighties and late eighties to mid nineties) they will never come close to matching the dizzying highs of their debut effort.

The truth is they’re a little bit of all this and more because like most artists they will always be different things to different people. Content is their first studio album in 16 years and their seventh studio LP overall. In preparing for it, guitarist Andy Gill has said that he and King had “Wanted to try and define the essence of what we’re doing, to go back to your inner selves, see what it is that makes you you.” The soul-searching seemed like a logical step for a group that could only be swamped by the tide of tributes, the post-punk revival and the territory that comes with being such a heavily imitated band.

The 11 songs clock in at 40 minutes and it’s a cohesive effort of abstract and off-kilter staccato riffs in their trademark blend of stripped down punk rock with elements of funk, minimalism and dub. The leftfield grooves propel along with splashes of electronic trinkets keeping the energy and spirits high. It’s danceworthy rock music of the better kind, but with a social and political tilt and the 2011 targets of choice include: consumerism (a fight yet to be won) and the narcissism of the iGeneration.

On tracks like “You Don’t Have To Be Mad” and “You’ll Never Pay For The Farm” the grooves are immediately infectious and reach out and grab you so much you could almost see the needles dancing their own jig on the amplifier. “I Party All The Time” meanwhile, sounds like what you’d get if U2 decided to embrace more of a groove thang. There is some vocoder overkill on “It Was Never Gonna Turn Out Too Good” meaning at times it sounds like a discarded Kraftwerk cut except that the dark and broody atmosphere seems like it was lifted straight out of a Nirvana songbook. Finally, “Second Life” contains hints of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” but only if it were being played by a skittish child – who even if it’s life depended on it – could not sit still.

On Content, Gill and King were joined by new rhythm section, Mark Heaney and Thomas McNeice who replaced original drummer and bassist, Hugo Burnham and Dave Allen, respectively. Some will argue the former pair’s influence is a new lease of life to the collective while others will say they haven’t filled the large shoes left behind by the latter two. The fact remains that the record is layered and busy both musically and lyrically, with jagged guitars and strings bent to the max so that King’s opinionated sneers are drenched in jerking rhythms and propulsive grooves. And while it ain’t the groundbreaking stuff of their debut, there are plenty of interesting moments on offer to get people moving and thinking

Review score: 7/10