Best of 2019 #8: Girl Band - The Talkies (Rough Trade)

Girl Band, Ireland's answer to the Jesus Lizard, took their time putting out a follow up to their 2015 debut, Holding Hands with Jamie, and it shows. This album is a finely crafted mashup of punk, demented noise rock, electronic drones and offkey screaming. Their first album was a paean to noise rock and one of my favourite albums of 2015. This album shows the band branching out into new territories, like electronics, while remaining true to their weird noise-rock core.

Best of 2015 #8: Girl Band - Holding Hands with Jamie (Rough Trade)

Ireland's Girl Band fill a void which sorely needed filling: unhinged, demented noise rock. Not since Mclusky broke up (I know we still have Future of the Left, but it's not quite the same...), no band has really fit the bill to take up the mantle for the sound they pioneered. Girl Band's debut, Holding Hands with Jamie, is a definite contender to follow up for Mclusky's style of noise rock. Girl Band entwine shouted and often undecipherable lyrics with shrieking walls of guitar noise, swirling vortices of feedback and occasional saxophone wails. They should appeal to fans of Mclusky, Shellac or The Fall. Given I like all of those bands, I love what this band is doing. Their second album should tell us the score, if they captured lightning in a bottle for their debut, or if they have the chops to keep doing what they did so well on their first album.