Last year M(h)aol released Attachment Styles, one of my favourite albums. I’ve fallen in love with its hypnotically chaotic post punk noise. Since its release they’ve lost two members and are now a trio. Based in Dublin, Belfast and London, Constance Keane, Jamie Hyland, and Sean Nolan have just released Snare on Merge Records.
It tends to be a bad sign when bands lose members but I needn’t have worried, ‘Snare; is brilliant. It builds from a train-like drum beat, adds clangy post punk guitar, and rumbly distorted bass. Constance’s conversational vocals run through it like a voiceover track. The closest comparisons I have are Can and, for modern reference, Dry Cleaning.
“Snare’ is about countless conversations I’ve had since my first drum lesson on my ninth birthday about how bizarre it is that I play that instrument, or how I should be doing it differently,” recalls M(h)aol’s lead vocalist and drummer Constance Keane. “The idea of society gendering an inanimate object like a drum kit, when it’s something that brings me so much joy and release, has always frustrated me hugely, and I thought it was time to sing about it.”
