The Talkies

ロックの破壊的衝動を完璧に表現する重要作
アイルランドの硬音ポストパンク・バンド ガール・バンド4年振りの最新アルバム!

歪みを効かせたギターサウンドに凶暴かつソリッドな硬質サウンドと、聴く者の数倍上を超えてゆく圧倒的熱量のヴォーカルスタイルで、NMEやPitchforkをはじめとする多数メディアでデビュー前から期待の新人枠などで取り上げられ、さらには来日も果たし圧巻のパフォーマンスで強烈な印象を残したアイルランド・ダブリン発のポストパンク/ノイズロック・バンド、ガール・バンドがデビュー作『Holding Hands With Jamie』以来、実に4年ぶり2作目『The Talkies』を〈ROUGH TRADE〉よりリリース。

デビュー作のリリース以降はデモ制作や、各自がパートを作曲しアイデアを集め、それを切り刻んでパソコンに取り込みコラージュするという方法で音を再構築したのが今作であり、ダブリン郊外にある大邸宅「Ballintubbert House」でレコーディングされた。

「アルバムの元となったアイデアは、いろいろな意味で、この家を音で表現するということだった」とフロントマンのアラン・ダガンが語るように異質な建築構造がバンドの激変するサウンドをさらに独特なものにしており、バンドのベーシストで本作のプロデューサーも兼任したダニエル・フォックス曰く、ドラムは踊り場と地下室でそれぞれ1回ずつ録音され、プロダクションの過程で両方の音を組み入れるなど、実験的な方法で制作されている。

リスナーの耳へヒリヒリと直に迫ってくる脅迫的な音とその間を揺れ動く不協和音、ハイエナジーかつダークなヴォーカルのグルーヴ感、さらには炸裂するスネアドラムに目紛しく変化するバンド特有のギターサウンドは、ロックの破壊的衝動を完璧に表現している。

Irish noise rock group Girl Band present their sophomore album, The Talkies, following their 2015 debut album, Holding Hands with Jamie. After the cancellation of their last tour and their conspicuous silence online, many thought another album would not surface. Luckily, they managed to decamp to Ballintubbert House to piece together this record. ~ Liam Martin|

More than just an Irish noise rock group, Girl Band are a state of mind. As pretentious as that sounds, both their approach to songwriting and their lyrical subject matter reflect the struggle between order and chaos found in conflicted thinking. The claustrophobia of crushing sounds contrasted with brief moments of reprieve make for a strong representation of a brain at war with itself. On their second record, theyve created tension between innovative and carefully crafted songwriting and the stream-of-consciousness screams of frontman Dara Kiely. The rhythm section is so tight it imposes order -- often with new and interesting angles -- onto the unhinged guitar and vocal work, but they strike the balance perfectly so as to not let one side or the other dictate proceedings. As evidenced by the recording process, which was more meticulous than it might first seem; they wrote songs in pieces, re-jiggered them with a little computer wizardry, and then relearned the contorted results, also utilizing the recording space -- in this case, Ballintubbert House -- to affect specific sonics, such as recording drums twice, once in the basement and once in the stairwell. The allusion to mental health is made explicit on opener Prolix, as a pulsing synth rests beneath Kielys erratic breathing; this is mirrored in the closer Ereignis, although in this case the breathing is controlled and calm, framing the album as a protracted panic attack. Every song in between is as loud and abrasive as expected and prone to abrupt changes, like Going Norway and Shoulderblades, which encapsulate the peaks and troughs found throughout The Talkies. Despite adhering to an overall concept, the band manage to squeeze in numerous smaller concepts, with the most prominent being Aibohphobia; the term used for a fear of palindromes, ironically being a palindrome itself. They reversed the initial recording of the track before learning the track in reversed form to re-record it, and to top it all off, Kiely sings exclusively in palindromes. Girl Band have a track record for blurring the line between noise rock and techno, clearly heard on their infamous cover of Blawans Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage, but here they have incorporated those elements into original compositions; firstly, on the short electronic freakout of Akineton, and more overtly on penultimate track Prefab Castle, which threatens to go full Jon Hopkins by its second half. Tackling mental health through music is no easy task, yet Girl Band depict the more unhinged side of it accurately. Kiely himself has dealt with numerous issues -- most are well-documented in interviews -- even leading to the cancellation of their last tour, an event which many believed Girl Band would not come back from. By choosing to take on the subject head-on, theyve crafted an album which is half-noise rock record and half-audio representation of Kielys mind. While it may be a struggle to listen to for anyone caught unaware, its that same struggle that makes their output so captivating as an experience. ~ Liam Martin