Album Review: Gilla Band, Most Normal

Their change of name hasn’t dented this Dublin quartet’s oeuvre one iota. Loud, abrasive guitars? Check. Breakneck drumming? Indeed. The kind of raw screams of consciousness that could leave hardened post-punk audiences quivering in terror? You bet.

Perhaps the most unusual thing about the noise-bringers’ third album is the amount of tunefulness hidden amongst the distortion, from the ringing guitar of ‘Almost Soon’ to the hilariously cutting ‘Eight Fivers’, where frontman Dara Kiely namechecks all manner of local retail outlets where he spends his money on “shit clothes”. Couture is something of a recurring theme, from the nervous energy of ‘Binliner Fashion’, all skittish drums and howled vocals, to the weird drones of ‘Red Polo Neck’.

Described by the band as an “indirect love song”, ‘Backwash’ intercuts some relatively melodic (for them) musing with slabs of raw, industrial noise. The distorted cacophony of ‘Pratfall’ and the nightmarish fugue of ‘Capgras’ are difficult listens, but the brilliant ‘I Was Away’, ‘Almost Soon’ and ‘Post Ryan’ veer almost to the edge of the indie/punk dancefloor, although the former’s mid-section scream-fest sends the song scuttling back to the fringes. Kiely comes across like a jacked-up Dave Couse during the second half of the almost-seven minute ‘The Weirds’, freewheeling through a manic rant that encompasses everything from running out of friends to Adam Ant.

Uncompromisingly impressive.

8/10

Read our interview with Gilla Band in the new issue of Hot Press – out now: