For some reason, unexplained to the periphery of my mind, I thought Gilla Band was associated with King Gizzard, both in their psych rock sound and their origins. I am very wrong, as Gilla Band is from Ireland and way more noise punk than anything else.
Pugnello is my first introduction to this frenetic noise punk four-piece, and it’s a healthy dose of bashing post-punk and modern, anxiety-inducing industrial chaos. The album was said to be inspired by the lead singer Dara Kiely’s diagnosis of schizophrenia, and not to make light of that (because that sounds utterly terrible), Pugnello sounds psychotically paranoid. It’s a tough listen.
Songs can begin with buzzing bass, Kiely’s razor-blade screams and chants, and sometimes a reversed, looped, feedback-laden guitar. It’s hard to really pick out what to feel or talk about, because each song is quite different from the next. So, just so you have an idea, I’ll compare it to what I know and have heard before “Placeholder” is kind of ravey, a bit Squid-smashed, compared to the chaotic drone of A Place To Bury Strangers.
“The Megazord” intro sounds like a broken Game Boy before some apocalyptic fuzz rings next to it. It’s kind of like The Armed, but more chaotic in its toss-everything (with great force) at the wall approach. “Computer Sadness” gave me industrial gothica Sisters of Mercy vibes, but it does truly sound like, for each song, Kiely finds a vocal sound he likes, and the band creates a whole song around it. So Pugnello, as a whole, is a strange cup of weird anxiety that is a tough pil lto swallow. Still, perhaps I should check out the earlier stuff.
