Album Review: Girls Names 'Stains on Silence'

After a difficult birthing process, Belfast quartet Girls Names have finally arrived with their fifth LP, Stains On Silence. The original mixes for the record - their follow-up to 2015's Arms Around A Vision - were scrapped and the project shelved for six months.

But overcoming a creative impasse that could have felled a lesser group, the band have now produced a noise-pop masterwork. The record's sublime amalgam of surf-music reverb and paranoid atmospherics locate it in some nightmarish noir landscape.

Cathal Cully's voice doesn't so much lead the charge as add another menacing element to the mix, as it merges with layers of swirling synths. The title-track is one of the stand-out moments - a six-minute epic that builds from minimalist beginnings to a mesmerising crescendo.

The spirit of early '80s electro is summoned on tracks like 'Haus Proud', which has echoes of post-punk luminaries like The Cure, Killing Joke and Joy Division. A haunting piece of work, Stains On Silence has mostly definitely been worth the wait.

Out today! Rating: 8/10