Album Review: Gilla band, Pugnello

Sometimes you just have to sit back and admire the audacity. Dublin post-punk/noise rock band Gilla Band are on album number four – and they have never sounded better than this.

Their latest effort, Pugnello, was a product of, quote: “Blending childhood memories with adult day-to-day life, grief, obscure footballers, bible references, dealing with being diagnosed with Schizophrenia [frontman Dara Kiely], and general silliness.”

The result is something brutal, visceral, redemptive and utterly unique. The  first track, ‘The Angelus’, is a sort of nonsense-Irish-proclamation about our “nation of Applegreens”; it leads into ‘Placeholder’, which might be the most claustrophobic song they’ve ever shared (and that’s saying something).

No song on this album isn’t panic-inducingly brilliant. They stretch themselves stylistically, too. ‘Alogia’ has an LCD Soundsystem-style, pulse-funk groove that’s delicious; elsewhere, Kiely’s howling is completely unhinged on ‘Jacobsons’. Several songs, including the Power Rangers-inspired ‘The Megazord’, defy genre.

There’s a reason most of the biggest Irish punk and rock artists of today have cited Gilla Band as a touchstone influence: they’re simply one of the best Irish artists of the 21st century.

• Out now.