Gilla Band – Most Normal | soundsfromthedarkside

Gilla Band_Most Normal_front_SftDS Wake up you noise loving punkers, it’s time for Gilla Band!

Gilla what? Yes, Gilla Band, the band formerly known as Girl Band and who we might call TBFKAGB in a few years. So take that TAFKAP! Jokes aside, Girl Band was never about girls but about four blokes from Dublin. Believe it or not but some people were still disappointed when they found out that vocalist Dara Kiely is just a guy from the Emerald Isle. Also the band believed that their former handle could propagate a culture of non-inclusivity and we can’t have that anymore in 2022. So one of the musically most uncompromising band’s decided it was time to compromise. A more future proof name, Gilla Band, was chosen but everything else remains the same. So get ready for another transverse, ruthless,scrap heap sounding studio album which carries the title Most Normal.

Most Normal is a far from normal recording as you might have guessed. To put in a sentence: Gilla Band’s third is made of a sort of blunt data noise at the background of a fully operational factory with Kiely sing-barking like a maniac behind the assembly line. In just 36 minutes this band will blow up your amp and leave you for dead in the process.The cacophonous racket directly starts with The Gum which seems like a supercell thunderstorm of gabber beats infused with schizophrenic noise rock. Kiely et al make an art of destroying almost every pop song structure there is. On Backwash sharp noise is brought to highs under command of Kiely’s vocals and a relentless breakbeat. Gilla Band plays around with daker en lighter here and brings back similar sounding chaos on I Was Away and Almost Soon. While it has to be said that on Almost Soon the band almost sounds like a normal Britpop band with intervals of 30 seconds that is. Kiely melodic lines starts out well articulated but before you know it he once more vomits out incoherent words while surrounded by heavy noise feedback and industrial beats.

Only on a few occasions there is something meaningful that the band wants to share with us. Eight Fivers for instance is an anti-consumerist statement that musically reminds of post-punk edges used on predecessor The Talkies (2019). On Bin Liner Fashion the band even becomes anti-everything using big words and deafening noise as a way to break through the veils we live in. Although both tracks offer a sense of urgency they aren’t as personal as closer Post Ryan. Here Kiely reflects on the severe difficulties he had with his mental health”. Lines such as “I’m in-between breakdowns”;”gonna end up homeless” or “[I] hid behind the surreal” speak for themselves. Good for him he overcame all of this and is back to bully us with a shitload of dissonance and musical disturbance. In essence Most Normal is a wasteland of broken pop songs.The first part of the album will be especially demanding to listen to but after the interlude Gushie shards of lighter atmospheric electronica begin to break through. Red Polo Neck or Pratfall are still kind of weird but simply replace Dara Kiely’s voice with a clean voice like the one from Thom Yorke and things can quickly sound… normal.

Just like The Talkies this new work is a masterpiece in its own right. Most Normal however offers more deconstruction, more racket and above all more anger. Gilla Band dives deep into the anti-art and thus parts ways with other established post punk bands who aim to transform themselves into singalong stadium acts (yes, we’re looking at you Fontaines D.C.!). For now you only have to find the appropriate social setting to actually drop the needle on Most Normal. But take it from us, it’s always a good idea to have a copy lying around the house if you want to, let’s say, ‘arouse’ your guests during the upcoming holidays.

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