Karate - "Defendants"

Photo by Daniel Bergeron

I think we all have those bands that we know we should be more familiar with, but for some inexplicable reason, we just aren't. One of those bands for me is Karate. The Boston band's initial run was between 1993 and 2005 was my prime for going to shows and hearing new music, but even though I knew the name, I just never got into them.

Well... now's a good time for me to correct that since Karate is about to release their first new album in twenty years. Their latest single, "Defendants," fits right into the post-rock/slowcore/jazz rock sound that make Karate so beloved. It's the kind of single that makes a newbie like me angry for not discovering the beloved band twenty-five years ago when I should have, but at least now it's inspiring me to go into a full fledged deep dive. From the very surface of my dive, a song like "Defendants" and its B-side 'Silence, Sound" fit right in with their classic releases, showing that Karate have not lost a step at all in the past two decades.

You can listen to "Defendants" below. Make It Fit is due out October 18 on Numero Group, and is available for pre-order here. For more on Karate, check out the band on Facebook and Instagram.