Hi, everyone! Stashthony Monthtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Gilla Band project, Pugnello.

Irish noise rockers and post-punkers Gilla Band are back with their fourth Studio LP, out now via Rough Trade Records. This follows 2022's Most Normal, which came not too long after a quick name change from Girl Band, and that record made quite the splash on the Irish music scene at the time, even influencing some of Gilla Band's contemporaries like Fontaines D.C. And this new project here has pretty much been in the works ever since Most Normal dropped.

And Gilla Band's members have been pretty busy in that time period as well. Bassist Daniel Fox has been producing for various artists and albums like the band Psychotic Monks, and frontman Dara Kiely recently took up painting, and it's actually one of his pieces that graces the cover of this record here. And then, another vital piece of context for this album is Kiely's recent diagnosis with schizophrenia, which he is now being pretty open about on this album cycle and even makes mention of on a track here.

I also get the sense on this album that this shift in his vocal performance style and writing style into words and phrases that are more chaotic, unpredictable, and free-associative is supposed to embody that experience on some level. Pretty much making this record an outlet for those mental struggles as Kiely strives for stability and understanding.

Despite those clear intentions, though, I will say Pugnello is not a feel-good album. Far from it. In short, I would say it is a dark, tortured, anxiety-inducing no-wave project with a lot of sequenced electronics and beats, harsh walls of noise and distortion, blown-out drums, and vocal performances that sound like somebody who is suffering a severe mental break. Sometimes devolving into straight-up animalistic screaming.

Now, I could break down some various highlights from this record. I mean, there were a handful of singles that I think pretty effectively teased toward it. But I feel like, for the most part, these tracks work to try to reinforce each other as an overall album experience versus a traditional rock album, even a noise rock album, that might have maybe a few snappy singles or highlight jams. Which is not too surprising, because Gilla Band has always been pretty noise and noise rock adjacent, even when they went by Girl Band. But I feel like they're leaning into abrasiveness and experimentation on this record more than they ever have, and creating their greatest, heaviest, and most textured ruckus to date.

I will say the opener does a pretty great job of tone-setting for the record. I think if you're really into this song, if you really enjoy what's going on, that will very much dictate how much you are going to like the rest of the project. Of course, off the bat, you have frontman Kiely going through these frantic spoken-word vocal passages that sometimes read like an exasperated Mark E. Smith. Just a very off-the-rails performance from The Fall. And of course, he's speedrunning all of these various lyrical connections that he's making that bring him into weird and unexpected mental corners. Even going down a childhood media memory hole at one point. Among other places, too.

The vocals and lyrics on this record often will kind of switch between complete randomness and methodical intention, but it's usually happening so quickly it's hard to decipher which is which in real time. Especially as the band turns the volume up with booming percussion, ear-piercing feedback, super brittle distortion, droning, squealing, wailing noise rock guitars.

The instrumental palettes are very reminiscent of a lot of early no-wave acts, many of which can be caught on that No New York compilation and Sonic Youth's early days, too. And many other deep cuts you can pull from the Rough Trade Records catalog, which is why it's so fitting the band is putting a record like this on that label.

Then, as this opening track progresses even deeper, I catch vibes that remind me of bands like Suicide, as well as dark indie-tronic acts such as Liars. And again, it's a lot to take in, which is kind of the point. As weird and experimental as the songs on this record are, I feel like Gilla Band's intentions are pretty clear in terms of trying to grow many of these tracks to these peaks of madness, where the sensation of being completely overwhelmed is the goal.

And then, after kind of reaching that crescendo, bowing out and moving on to the next. And as a result of that, the track list on this thing kind of runs like one mental snap after another.

As, again, these tracks aren't necessarily structured around melodies or super catchy refrains. It's more whatever momentum or brute force or weird, surreal instrumental sound palette the band can progress toward by the end of a track's finish that leaves the overall impression.

Now, there are some songs deeper into the record that bring more sequenced beats and grooves that run maybe a little clubby or dance-punky, like "Placeholder" and "Alogia," as well as "Three Hands Clapping," to an extent. And these cuts, I would say, by comparison, are a little easier to take in. They are strange, but not out of range, but not out of range of groups that have quite a bit of buzz going right now, like Model/Actriz, as well as Mandy, Indiana, whose new record, I guess, Daniel Fox had a hand in helping produce, too. So yeah, there's like a lot of crossover there as a result, aesthetically.

Even if these moments are kind of palatable to start, it does not take Gilla Band long to basically shift into something that feels a lot more like a basement noise show, where you have a dude who basically hasn't showered in three weeks, writhing all over the floor, screaming into a microphone that's being run into maybe five distortion pedals, and kind of going into the shittiest guitar amp known to man. It's that harsh and awkward and unforgiving in real time, in its best moments. Because when this record is at its peak, a real serious discomfort sets in.

And again, while there are some weird basement noise show vibes going on here, the fact that Gilla Band is a full band allows them to create a much larger, more gargantuan, visceral sound. So there's a lot to admire about this album as a result of all of that.

However, as I progress deeper into the album, I'll say that a lot of the performances and the palette of sounds and textures and noises did start to lose their novelty and flavor a little bit. And the peaks that these tracks were hitting were maybe not coming across as intense. Either because they featured sounds that felt maybe just a bit too familiar to what Gilla Band had run through in the first leg of the record. Or on tracks like "Jacobsons," for example, the progression, the change, the shift from point A to point B just isn't bold or, I think, detailed enough to make it feel like the song is going much of anywhere.

And the last several tracks on the album, in my opinion, are really where things become maybe just a bit too predictable. Because despite being very clearly influenced by a lot of bands, that kind of set the tone for a lot of early noise rock and no wave. Many of Gilla Band's very loop-heavy and steady progressions, I feel like, prevent them occasionally from going fully off the rails, or at least as off the rails as many of their biggest influences. And as a result of that, I do feel like there is kind of a lack of bite in the second half of the record for me.

But still, despite not being maybe the biggest Gilla Band advocate in the past, even prior to the name change, I will say I do think this is their most impressive record to date, and I think the buzz that has kind of been gaining and the momentum that has been building up for the band is completely valid. And even if I didn't love it, there's still a handful of amazing highlights on this record, and it leaves me excited to see where the band will take it from here, too. I'm feeling a decent to strong seven on this one.

Anthony Fantano. Gilla Band. Forever.