ALBUM REVIEW: Megafauna – And So I Watch You From Afar
The capital city of Northern Ireland – and its principle port – Belfast, has seen a plethora of different people come and go throughout its history, each one leaving their mark, in turn creating a vibrant and buzzing atmosphere a hive of industry and culture. To the far north of the country, on the coast of County Antrim lies the small seaside resort town of Portrush – which is famous for its three sandy beaches; the West Strand, East Strand and White Rocks. What do these two vastly different places have in common? – they are the two beloved placed where instrumental post-rock collective, AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR (ASIWYFA from here onwards), call home.
Like all bands during the pandemic ASIWYFA found themselves stationary and locked in a introspective and reflective isolation. Like most of us, they’re left thinking about their journey through life, the places and the people that made them. This is the core of what the band’s seventh album Megafauna is about, it is a powerful tribute to their peers and to the places they call home – Portrush and Belfast.
For nearly 20 years AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR have been pushing the boundaries on what post-rock can be, always seeking to do something differently and embracing new ways of doing things without compromising their style or emotional songwriting. As a result, Megafauna is another prime example of no two ASIWYFA albums being the same. Following on from 2022s critically-acclaimed, multi-media album Jettison, Megafauna is an emotive and defiant statement which harks back to the band’s more traditional approach to writing music and the embodiment of their long running mantra of “Do the scary thing.” It is also an uplifting celebration of the communities that shaped them and a call for togetherness after the psychical and psychological minefield of pandemic isolation.
Megafauna is a dynamically emotive album in a number of ways. On one hand, you have the energetic and joyful interplay between multiple guitar hooks that tickle your brain in the best way possible, which in itself brings a tingling, tangible ecstasy to the moment. On the other hand, when you consider the album’s concept it is difficult not to get introspective and reflect on the people and places that made you. Alongside this you have the luscious moments of atmospheric post-rock which are the intersected by a reinvigorated ASIWYFA heaviness that harks back to their earlier work.
While Megafauna is predominately an energetic album, there are moments of intense reflection and sentimentality. A good example of this is Gallery of Honour, in which juxtaposed dissonance and atmospheric is used to express the wildness of the emotions we’ve all experienced at some point of the last four years. It is a testament to ASIWYFA’s songwriting that they are able to convey a plethora of complex emotions in their melodies, harmonies and riffs – quite often they are emotions that words can never do justice to, the visceral ones we can’t explain.
The album opens up with North Coast Megafauna, an undeniable and steadfast anthem for the album. Layers of melody wash over you like the waves across Portrush’s three beaches before launching into an effortlessly jazzy sections of evolving guitar leads, harmonies and heavy riffs. Do Mór is a wonderfully playful track with plenty of intricate guitar hooks and mind bending jazz syncopation. The aforementioned Gallery of Honour, offers a moment of reflection amongst luscious, psychedelic piano atmospheres and progressive drum rhythms, accompanied by droning guitar leads that reverberate into the ether.
Mother Belfast (Part 1) evolves from calm, glistening synth pads and a steady drum beat, with the rest of the band gradually coming in to build blissful atmosphere that makes you feel like you’re floating. All this comes before it descends into a riff filled, frantic and gut punching section that fades into the jazzy intro to Mother Belfast (Part 2). The latter part continues to riff on the musical motif set out in Part 1 but with less distortion, this makes it a grooving jazzy track that gets you dancing.
Years Ago has the nostalgia of reflection imbued into its fabric, with hopeful melodies that those halcyon days can repeat themselves. Any Joy is a similar kind of track but is increasingly sombre, it reminds you of that hopeless feeling we’ve all felt, with dissonance and melancholy at its heart. The momentum and energy picks up again with Button Days which leans into straightforward rock to give you a quick slap back to reality with its unbounded optimism. The album is rounded off with Me And Dunbar, an anthemic, riff laden song that finishes the album on an optimistic and hopeful high note.
AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR have celebrated the place and people close to them in the best way possible. With a stunningly emotive album that captures the highs and lows of life while demonstrating the strength of community spirit and togetherness.
Rating: 8/10
Megafauna is out now via Pelagic Records.
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