A New Masterpiece of Violence, Experimentation, and Spellbinding Chaos from Ireland’s Noise Rock Titans
Gilla Band—one of the most visionary and disruptive outfits in Ireland’s experimental noise rock scene—returns with Pugnello, their eagerly awaited LP following 2022’s Most Normal. Recorded across three separate studios over a four-year period, the album represents the mature culmination of the band members’ side projects and collaborations, which span from Lankum and Sprints to Mandy, Indiana and Faris Badwan.
Released via Rough Trade, Pugnello offers a monumental musical journey, merging Gilla Band’s signature aesthetic of sheer noise with unexpected dance grooves and hypnotic arrangements.
Drum Machines, Endless FX, and Outer-Space Vocals
For Gilla Band, noise is never a mere display of brute aggression, but a vast playground for rendering sounds unrecognizable and warping time itself. In shaping this record, the band positioned drum machines as primary compositional tools, opening the door to driving, high-tempo rhythms on tracks like “The Gallop.”
Key musical layers and aesthetic choices across the record:
Dance Music and Instrumental Illusions: Drawing inspiration from electronic music and Aphex Twin-esque textures, the soundscape completely blurs the line between guitar, bass, and synth. Acoustic drums and guitar pedals undergo such radical processing that they coalesce into a hypnotic wall of sound.
Bob Dylan Wit and Emotional Shock: Frontman Dara Kiely’s sharp, rapid-fire wordplay—a nod to Bob Dylan’s “Tombstone Blues”—gives way to a remarkably deep and surprising emotional weight on tracks like “The Gallop.”
Vocal Manipulation and Hypnotic Trance: Channeling the uncanny atmosphere of work by The Breeders or Lou Reed, layered tremolo and effects make the vocals sound as if beamed in from deep space. On “Crisp Pop,” the relentless, ritualistic vocal cadence evokes the eerie atmosphere of rapidly recited prayers in Irish Catholic mass.
A Boundary-Dismantling Musical Experience
With Pugnello, Gilla Band deliver far more than a challenging noise-rock album; they melt abstract electronic textures, punk abrasiveness, and surrealist poetry into a single crucible. Pulling the listener into an eerie state of hypnosis, these arrangements construct a rich sonic palette whose hidden layers reveal themselves upon repeat listens.
Pugnello stands as the freshest and most potent proof that music can be intricately layered, experimental, and profound without sacrificing a fraction of its raw energy.
