With the four studio albums they have to their name so far, Belfast’s own And So I Watch You From Afar have perfected an instrumental playbook whose mantra requires a lot out of these musicians. Just about every one of And So I Watch You From Afar‘s songs involves the band tying itself into a series of seemingly irresolvable knots, with tricky time signatures and zip-fast guitar leads coalescing into mind-rattling figures. Yet by the end of each song, the quartet finds its way out. That is a rare act that makes a conservatory-worthy music clinic sound like an absolute blast; for a band of this caliber, it’s easy to indulge in time signatures as an end in of themselves, but these guys have figured out how to make instrumental prowess and infectious songwriting go hand in hand.
Full article via PopMatters
These things hold true on The Endless Shimmering, And So I Watch You From Afar’s fifth studio outing. Recorded over nine days in Rhode Island during a snowstorm that forced the group to concentrate all its energy on the studio, whether they wanted to or not. (They, of course, did.) PopMatters is happy to premiere “Terrors of Pleasure”, one of the fruits of those recording sessions, a characteristically intricate song that’s always two steps ahead of the listener, ready to throw the most insane—and fun—musical curveballs. Spindly guitar leads give way to crushing power chords and sprightly drum stops. It’s a lot to fit into five minutes, but with these chaps, it sounds effortless.
Guitarist Rory Friers says of the song, “I remember the day this track started to really come together, my brother was coming up to our rehearsal space to pick up some equipment. When he arrived he asked us to play him something new, so we started playing ‘Terrors of Pleasure’. When it kicked into the big middle section, I turned around and he was laughing and straight away I knew we were making a good song.”
The Endless Shimmering will be released digitally and physically by Sargent House on October 20th.
TOUR DATES
OCT 18 Haarlem, NL // Patronaat
OCT 19 Utrecht, NL // EKKO
OCT 20 Nijmegen, NL // Doornroosje (Purple Room)
OCT 21 Osnabrück, DE // KI. Freiheit
OCT 22 Karlsruhe, DE // Stadtmitte
OCT 23 Eindhoven, NL // DDWMusic Festival
OCT 24 Rouen, FR // Le 106 Club
OCT 25 Nantes, FR // Le Ferrailleur
OCT 26 Bordeaux, FR // Le Void
OCT 27 Barcelona, ES // AM Fest
OCT 28 Madrid, ES // Sala Caracol
OCT 29 Porto, PT // Hard Club
OCT 30 Lisbon, PT // Musicbox
NOV 02 Milan, IT // Magnolia
NOV 03 Fribourg, CH // Nouveau Monde
NOV 04 Winterthur, CH // Gaswerk
NOV 05 Pratteln, CH // MiniZ7
NOV 06 München, DE // Ampere
NOV 07 Prague, CZ // NoD Teatro
NOV 08 Leipzig, DE // Conne Island
NOV 09 Berlin, DE // Lido
NOV 10 Hannover, DE // Bei Chez Heinz
NOV 12 Cologne, DE // Gebäude 9
NOV 13 Wiesbaden, DE // Schlachthof
NOV 14 Essen, DE // Zeche Carl
NOV 15 Hamburg, DE // Knust
NOV 16 Groningen, NL // Vera
NOV 17 Maastricht, NL // Muziekgieterij
NOV 18 Louvain-La-Neuve, BE // Festival La Ferme
NOV 19 Kortrijk, BE // De Kreun
NOV 21 Paris, FR // Maroquinerie
NOV 22 Luxembourg, LU // Rockhal
NOV 23 London, UK // Koko
NOV 24 Manchester, UK // Academy 2
NOV 25 Glasgow, UK // Oran Mor
NOV 26 Bristol, UK // Thekla
DEC 28 Dublin, Ireland // Academy
DEC 29 Castlebar Co Mayo, Ireland // Garbo’s
DEC 30 Cork, Ireland // Cypress Avenue
DEC 31 Galway, Ireland // Roisin Dubh