From the very beginning of their musical journey, Silk quickly gained a reputation for creating a huge wall of sound. Their love of pioneers My Bloody Valentine quickly became obvious to all, but on their early singles, this Irish shoegaze act captured enough energy and pure force to bring a classic sound to the masses in a genuinely impressive way.
On the lead track of their 2026 mini album ‘Auralux’, the love of a dense sound is taken to extremes. The number flaunts a guitar sound that’s so huge, its distorted edges swamp everything – including a clean, more indie-infused vocal. The main riff’s sludgy edges take the relative melodies from the extreme end of the shoegaze spectrum and move the mood into something almost grungy. It’s an approach that really works, especially when offset by a brighter sounding lead guitar and warped sounds that recycle a key element of MBV’s signature approach, and a couple of quieter moments that suggest more of a dream-gaze influence. Although this initially feels more concerned with force than melody, time spent with the track will also unveil a wonderful early 90s tone to the vocal which, despite often taking a back seat, works really hard to make its mark. It’s a number that genuinely pulls no punches, showcasing most of Silk’s major influences in a single six minute hit. It’s a more than fine way to kick off this release.
Things don’t particularly settle after that. Silk certainly aren’t coasting here, and ‘Clementine’ – previously released as a digital single – serves up almost as big a musical storm. Opening with crashing drums and a whirring guitar sound, the performance drops into some classic shoegaze vibes with immediate effect. Hearing this for the first time is like discovering unreleased treasure from the early years of New York’s A Place To Bury Strangers’ aural assault. Allowing a little time for your ears to adjust, melodies start to creep through the wall of noise, firstly via a clean-ish vocal sharing retro indie tones, then through a shift to a more accessible chorus where a voice soars against some brash guitar sounds. The tonal shifts are always slight, never breaking the mood, but provide enough of a change to give this number a sense of motility.
Those hoping for a little more of a melodic edge will get their wish on ‘July’, when clean guitars opt for more of a dream pop/janglepop sound by way of a brilliantly atmospheric intro. However, it isn’t too long before Silk revert to type, allowing for far more of a blusterous tone to take over through a wealth of distorted guitar work. As you might expect, this doesn’t reach too far beyond the expected perimeters of classic shoegaze, but between a huge sound – so huge it swamps half of the vocal at first – and a decent (genre specific) vocal, but it sounds great. By allowing a little more melody to creep into the verse, there’s eventually a decent feeling of musical balance here, and eventually – somewhere around the third or fourth play – the flowing vocal that fills the chorus will start to feel like more of a melodic hook. Everything here plays to its own strengths, but those paying closer attention are likely to fall in love with a brief bridge where the MBV tones give way to a deep bass sound and a colder, goth infused melody borrowed rather obviously from The Cure’s wonderfully bleak ‘Pornography’ LP. A companion piece, ‘August’ opens with a howl of guitar before dropping into a crushing riff that sounds like an old Smashing Pumpkins classic drowning in distortion. Despite featuring one of the heaviest riffs on this record, the track’s verse offers something far more accessible when it shares a very melodic dreamgaze riff and echoing vocal, creating something that sounds like a sister piece to Irish shoegaze act KEELEY circa ‘Girl On The Edge of The World’. With a touch more light and shade, this has the potential to become a fan favourite. Even from first listen, it’s definitely ‘Auralux’s highlight.
Elsewhere, you’ll find more material flaunting a massive MBV love, with ‘Pleasures’ filling four minutes with a wonderfully dense guitar riff offset by light lead guitar tones and verses overflowing with dark promise and grinding bass sounds, and the epic ‘Slide Away’ tapping into more KEELEY-esque sounds, and making a great feature of some otherworldly, slightly atonal lead guitar. While neither track ventures outside of the boundaries set by noisier shoegaze, both sound utterly immense with the volume cranked, delivering sounds that genre fans will love in a heartbeat.
The bulk of the material on ‘Auralux’ could be considered fairly generic, but in this case, that certainly doesn’t make it bad. Multi instrumentalist Michael Smyth – responsible for almost everything that’s heard throughout this release, save for a guest spot on ‘Slide Away’ crediting Taylor Wright – is someone who obviously understands the value in taking a tried and tested sound and reproducing it well, and in this case, it’s resulted in something that’s genuinely impactful. The title cut is a clear highlight, but there honestly are no weak links here. Those unconvinced by shoegaze will definitely remain unconvinced, but those looking for solid musical thrills between MBV albums, still lamenting the absence of Scandinavian band Spielbergs, and hoping for a more aggressive companion to cult Irish band KEELEY are likely to have an absolute blast.
May 2026
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