And So I Watch You From Afar- S/T

And So I Watch You From Afar

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Buy It *Nods*





Tracklist:
1. Set Guitars To Kill
2. A Little Bit Of Solidarity Goes A Long Way
3. Clench Fists, Grit Teeth...Go!
4. I Capture Castles
5. Start A Band
6. Tip Of The Hat, Punch In The Face
7. If It Ain't Broke, Break It
8. TheseRIOTSareJUSTtheBEGINNING
9. Don't Waste Time Doing Things You Hate
10. The Voiceless
11. Eat The City, Eat It Whole


Well well. It's been a fair oul wait since we saw This Is Our Machine And Nothing Can Stop It and Tonight The City Burns!, and it has been worth the wait. Truth be told, neither were flawless, the latter only really gave us one standout track, and a collaboration with Jonny Black and Fighting with Wire man, which slowly started to wear on me, to be honest. It speaks volumes then that so many have been waiting in anticipation for this, their full length debut. A Little Solidarity, a 3 day event organised in November by the band designed to showcase Northern Irish talent and show a little......yeah......is partly responsible.
Most folk got swept up in the whole thing, myself included, and even if you didn't know a lot about Northern Irish music, it made you feel like you did, and you kinda thought y'know what, NI music ain't that bad really. It's pretty fucking impressive, actually.

So if you find them over hyped, over rated, or you're sick of seeing their posters, fuck up. If they didn't make you feel proud of your wee country then they at least helped give us "a fuck load of amazing music."
Another reason this album has been a long time coming for many, and this is directed towards the cynics, and those that are sick hearing their name : Instrumental post rock is a genre, that frankly, it is very easy to be ok in. Anyone can play something clean and slow for a while, and go nuts at the end of a song. Big deal. It is a genre that is bloated with copycats and mehness, and if you don't know, i'm telling you. So the praise for ASIWYFA is deserved. They aren't some pretty good instrumental band from NI, they have managed to surpass their contemporaries and should now be reckoned with on the same footing as Mogwai.

And they're exiciting. Their music is joy and rage and sadness, and it gives you a fucking boot in the side of the head. Album/live opener Set Guitars To Kill begins with an ominous marching uproar and squealing guitars, before plunging straight for the center of the earth. It doesn't let up for a second, and manages to almost perfectly capture the live chaos, minus the sweat and elbows to the face. It's post rock, but not as we know it Jim. It's fucking angry.

A Little Bit Of Solidarity Goes A Long Way, frankly, is the most inspirational thing i've ever heard come out of Northern Ireland. It can't be stressed enough how much this doesn't need words. Raging guitars stampede onwards while that persistent....neverending riff plays on in the background, like a countdown to the end of the world. The re-recording has been kind to this tune, everything seems better mixed and much more clear. Simply breathtaking.

I can't do every song like this because no-one's going to take the time to read it, but this album is immense. Every time you think you've guessed which direction they're taking it in, it veers off in another. Clench Fists, Grit Teeth...Go! explodes through your speakers with some serious rage, I Capture Castles has again done well from the re-recording, (props to Rocky O' Reilly) seeming more urgent, and darkly unstoppable as a result. Start A Band, far from starting off as optimistically as the title suggests, has a brooding, tortured soul of an intro. It's a lovely instrumental piece, but maybe they should have opted for a different title, as something called Start A Band should really sound like a joyous headfuck throughout. Perhaps, "An evening in with a curry and Jonathan Ross" would have been better, or "My tea's cold." Probably not, but you get the idea. It goes mental at the end as well, so we'll forgive it.

The "Hey guys, we're happy!" of Tip Of The Hat, Punch In The Face rattles along nicely without a care in the world. Until it grows up slightly at 1:17, and starts crunching through, picking up a meaty riff along the way. The heavily At The Drive In influenced, If It Ain't Broke, Break It, is an album stand out. Starting out with over a minute of sonic warfare, before progressing into crashing drums, the track develops into something truly special after around 3 minutes. This is earthquake music.
ASIWYFA calling card, TheseRIOTSareJUSTtheBEGINNING (ft. improved name) has not done so well out of a re-recording. Im tempted to just delete the new version and slip the old one in it's place. It's still good...it just feels less....dangerous. It's not as urgent, that bit at the end that gets your attention where it goes mental has slowed down noticeably....everything seems at a much more sensible volume...I dunno. I'm not sure.

Don't Waste Time Doing Things You Hate, soon to be the band's new comeonguyswecandothis anthem, is brilliant. It has the explosive guitars and silly noises that everyone can get behind. It's a truly optimistic number, and it isn't cheesy or contrived. It's just brilliant. And then comes that silly, Friendly Fires esque samba breakdown. Oh....ok....go on then. It's a bit silly, but in a genre that regularly takes itself too seriously, it's probably not a bad thing. Trackthatevenmumscanappreciate, The Voiceless, still sounds beautiful. It's a lovely song, and an apt penultimate number. Eat The City, Eat It Whole, sounds remarkably like Mount Kailash, but whatever. It's a darkly atmospheric closer, building on swishy swashy guitars before getting all excitable, and eventually exploding. I couldn't help but feel that Mount Kailash might have been a better album closer, despite being an old tune. It's still great though, and rampages off into the distance with a characteristic daftness.

It's not flawless, by any means. It's maybe not as trim as it could have been, and the re-recording of TheseRIOTS....is still upsetting me. But the fact that a wee band from NI are now one of the leaders in their genre, well, it's pretty darn impressive. As a debut it's incredibly strong, distinctive and fresh, in a genre that as already mentioned is full of copycats and samey-ness. If you wanted to initiate someone into post rock or instrumental with a short attention span, this would get the job done quicker than Mogwai or Sigur Ros. You're never going to be bored for long on this album, and as far as single tracks are concerned, it will keep you coming back for.....well, forever. Not only for the tunes, but cos however Northern Irish music progresses from now on, you can listen to this again and remember that you were there at a truly exiciting and promising time. You were there when ASIWYFA led the assault.

9.5/10