Gilla Band - Most Normal
Rough Trade
Ireland's industrial epicentre scrape the factory floor once more to bend your brain sideways and slam it into submission. Gilla Band, formerly known as Girl Band, have set the standard for the Irish music scenes revitalization over the last decade or more. 'Most Normal' is the bands latest installment of heart-skipping and eerily entrancing death disco.
The bands third studio album sees the already unconventional style of the band pushed through outermost parameters. The minds gutters are full of filth - sludge and last years thoughts. They overflow from time to time and it's impossible not to bear the brunt of the weight when they start to crack. It's an unavoidable occurrence. Sweat laced with dirt drips from your pores. On the fringes of mental collapse, Most Normal taps into a psychological spin - uncontrollable and ill-timed. I could have sworn that i was on the right track recently? Life continues to show you a different perspective. What you think is and what actually is can potentially be two vastly different worlds - alarming in their two different paradigms.
Soundscape-y passages add to the tension that persistently builds - like fading memories they come into view and disappear on their own accord. Like steel cables being stretched, not knowing when they'll eventually snap, Most Normal feels like its under an enormous amount of strain. Mind-altering amounts of pressure add unbearable angst to the already chaotic and disjointed assault that's taking place - the war waged is ultimately against oneself. Getting out of your mind and being out of your mind are two distinctly different places of consciousness, and Gilla Band do both with frightening accuracy. Criss-crossing the two states brings about an existential cry for help.
Splashes of bands like This Heat come through on Most Normal, most notably on final track 'Post Ryan'. The haunting jingle-jangle that arises harks back to albums like Deceit - a long-standing face in the world of experimental music and noise rock in particular. It's a space where Gilla Band will more than likely also thrive with their distinguished and unrepeatable sound. The approach to music here is nothing short of moving - earth moving, if you will. The obscure space in which they fill is fascinating.
Gilla Band certainly are choosing the road less traveled - off the beaten path is where the good stuff tends to come through in flying - though frightening - colours.
