25 September 2026 – Gilla Band Make Noise-Rock Feel Dangerously Danceable on Pugnello

Dublin's Gilla Band return with Pugnello, their fourth full-length and another persuasive argument that a collection of horrible noises can become remarkably enjoyable if arranged with sufficient imagination. Released through Rough Trade, the ten-track album includes "The Angelus," "Alogia," "Three Hands Clapping," "Jacobsons," "Computer Sadness," "Giraffe" and the nearly eight-minute "Crisp Pop."

The band's particular trick has always been making music that sounds seconds away from mechanical collapse while maintaining enough rhythmic discipline to keep bodies moving, and Pugnello enthusiastically continues the experiment. Their earlier records helped establish a strain of abrasive Irish and British post-punk guitar music in which repetition, electronics, distorted vocals and industrial textures could coexist with something resembling a groove.

Pugnello appears less interested in tidying that formula than stress-testing it. Songs lurch, pulse and grind rather than politely progress from verse to chorus, while Dara Kiely's vocals continue behaving like an additional malfunctioning instrument. There are easier records arriving today and considerably more relaxing ones, but relaxation has never exactly been Gilla Band's department. Pugnello sounds designed for listeners who hear a piece of machinery making an alarming noise and, instead of switching it off, wonder whether somebody could put a kick drum underneath it.