Das Kapitans kick off their 2026 EP ‘Elvytys’ with one of their sharpest tracks to date. Allowing no time for the listener to become acclimatised, ‘This T-Shirt Fights Sweatshops’ hits with a performance that couples a fast tempo with a hard edged lead guitar, sharing something that sounds a little like a DIY version of an old Bloc Party track. For the fan, it creates immediate thrill; for anyone previously unfamiliar with this UK indie-punk act, it offers something that should more than pique interest. The verse’s angular approach shows off a very tight quartet, with Ollie Prescott’s mechanical drumming pushing forward with an effectively mechanical edge, while Stephen Potter’s guitar adds a really busy post punk tone. The main hook offers a superb contrast, tapping into Das Kap’s shoutier aesthetic, allowing a booming voice to attack with the same huge presence felt on the chorus of the previous EP’s highlight ‘Just A Dream’. In short, this is peak Das Kapitans: a song that deserves pride of place at the lead track on a release, but also the kind of number that runs the risk of making everything else come up short.
Luckily, it’s not a case of peaking far too early, and the bulk of this release is hugely entertaining, and its strongest tracks could easily slot into 2024’s self-titled LP or 2025’s ‘Get Up’. ‘Chainsaws’ utilises a similar guitar sound but shifts it into slightly different territory by laying down more of a groove-laden beat. With the aid of a pointed bassline, this blurs the edges between great post punk and the art-funk of A Certain Ratio, but there’s still a brilliantly noisy chorus on hand for those who love it when Das Kapitans unleash their punkier side. Bringing in a really angular middle eight powered by prominent toms, the track also gets to stretch out without feeling in any way repetitive. A few plays later, it’s a number that holds up brilliantly, making it an EP highlight. By comparison, ‘Common Thought’ plays more in the vein of straight post punk. It’s a little predictable in Das Kap’s terms, but for the fans, the familiar sound should be well received, and if nothing else, the combo of old school riff and sizeable backing vocals on a sharp chorus is enough to see off the two minute romp with a rousing enough quality.
‘1998’ fares better, since a prominent lead guitar and buoyant bass do a lot of heavy lifting on a great sounding verse where the arty elements of the band’s sound shine through, before a chorus loaded with overdriven guitar sounds taps into more of a post hardcore intensity. In true DK tradition, the serious riffing is offset by a more frivolous lyric regarding an out of date bus pass, a crisp donating therapist and dancing with traffic cones, but like the best of the band’s previous work, any sly humour is clever enough to avoid sliding into novelty. With a few shrill sounding hardcore riffs coupled to a spoken word delivery in the track’s second half, this covers enough ground to feel like a Das Kapitans epic, despite clocking in at just three minutes. Then again, measured against their label mates Get The Fuck Outta Dodge and Al Pacinos Sister, this is epic: those bands could crank out five tunes in that time…
Pulling this short release to a close, you’ll find ‘Better Chance’ – a number that starts out sounding like an old Joy Division album cut played at 45rpm, but quickly slips into a great, bass driven indie rocker placing former drummer Lewis Smith’s impressive bass sound at the heart of the track. If you’ve followed Das Kapitans’ progress this far, you’ll have heard a lot of similar material, but this plays more confidently than most of their earlier recordings, really making the best out of Simon Bailey and Stephen Potter’s dual guitar attack, before ‘The Dogs Got Jobs’ switches the mood for something that sounds like a Pavement homage – atonal guitar lines swooping over a heavily strummed backdrop – coupled with a very English vocal and homespun lyrical concerns. This indie sound gives the band a lot of room to breathe, musically speaking, and it’s great to hear a really warm bass underscoring a sneering tone during the moments that aren’t dominated by an off-kilter and overtly twangy sounding guitar. In relation to the rest of this EP, it’s likely to be a little more of a slow burner in terms of long-term enjoyment, but its placing at the end of the running order ensures no momentum is lost.
Between the perfect post punk of the title cut and the brilliant British humour of ‘Just A Dream’, 2025’s ‘Get Up’ is arguably a stronger EP, but since ‘Elvytys’ isn’t weighted down with anything quite as maudlin as ‘Gold’, this actually feels like a more consistent listen. Playing the two EPs in tandem shows how much Das Kaptans have grown since their string of lockdown releases between 2020 and ’21, and creates a body of work that could rival their self-titled LP from ’24. Whether it reaches beyond their immediate and committed fan-base might be a different matter, but at its best, this EP cements Das Kapitans’ place among the UK’s best underground bands.
March 2026