After the obsessive pulse and swirling guitars of “Dead Reckoning”, Galway quartet In Athens are back with Voltage Party, revealing a more direct, visceral and danceable side of their sound. The two songs share a 7″ release on Blowtorch Records, and hearing them back to back makes it clear just how comfortably the band move between very different sounds.
There’s a lot of Death From Above 1979 in it: raw garage rock, plenty of punk energy, and a groove that never lets up. Jagged guitars sit over a dirty, punchy rhythm section with an almost motorik pulse, while some of the riffs carry the weight of Queens of the Stone Age. Gráinne Bleasdale sings the verses with a certain detachment, then really lets loose in the chorus, with an energy that recalls early Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And when the chorus erupts into shouts of “Voltage Party!”, it’s impossible not to join in.
Electricity runs through the lyrics too. There are hearts working like power stations and currents passing from one person to another. It’s about that attraction you feel before you can explain it, how someone can set you alight just by being near you. The music follows the same pattern: the verses build tension, the chorus releases it all at once, and then the cycle starts again. It makes perfect sense that In Athens wanted to write a song for small, packed-out venues, where the energy passes from the band to the people dancing.
It’s the kind of song you find yourself humming without realising. Full of energy and character, it has just enough wildness to make you want to play it again the second it ends.
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