Easy there!

In the great banquet of popular genres, instrumental music will always be an acquired taste. Its development in the classical and baroque eras left an imprint of elitism etched upon its voiceless visage, which persists in the cultural mindset of the present day. Thankfully, Belfast quartet And So I Watch You From Afar are more High on Fire than High Modernism, trading a seat in the ivory tower for a corner in the claustrophobic clubs of the underground music scene.

Formed in 2005, ASIWYFA occupy a solitary space between alternative and hardcore, displaying an uncanny capacity to shift seamlessly from soft cadence to sheer dissonance. Three EPs and a full-length debut later, the band’s relentless touring schedule has helped them carve out a niche in the contemporary market, earning support slots with the likes of Clutch, 65Days of Static and Them Crooked Vultures.

As evidenced in its lenghty title, new single Straight Through The Sun Without a Scratch could be the soundtrack to Homer’s Odyssey; a chaotic journey to the distant reaches of the sound spectrum.
 

The recurring polyphonic guitar hook will infiltrate your subconscious from the first spin, wired into the mainframe of your memory alongside the Nokia and Meteor themes. The riff serves as a reliable reference point for a song structure that bears more resemblance to a James Joyce novel than any current conception of composition. Key motifs recur as a means of reminding us of the landmarks laid down along the track’s peripheral path to points unknown.

The song surfaces like a stream of consciousness, capturing the chaos of the band’s live performances without compromising the concision and clarity of a studio recording. The absence of vocals merely illuminates the acute logicality ingrained in the track’s multi-layered structure, as melodic lines evolve and interweave in a network of inter-related ideas. While ASIWYFA will not appeal to eveyone, their songs create a language without words; an artform sustained by the communicative value of music. 

John Ryan