Yawning Chasm, new EP

Another Irish band that's caught my ear in a big way this year is Galway's Yawning Chasm.

They were a duo - Aaron Coyne and Declan Kelly - until being joined by Jimmy Monaghan on drums lately. They play a kind of plangent folk music, with slow, deliberate tempos mostly, arranged around careful electric guitar pickings and lovely synth gurglings for support. Here's a few words from a piece I did for WeAreNoise recently.

http://wearenoise.com/index.php/2012/06/yawning-chasm-butterfly-crab-ep-free-download/

A quick follow-up to Rebecca’s preview of the Yawning Chasm gig that took place at Citóg in Galway last night (by the way a great night was had by all, we believe), to launch their new Butterfly & Crab EP.

As Rebecca mentioned, the gig would trigger the new EP becoming available on the band’s bandcamp page, to replace the previous, and majestic, Whispered sun EP. So, you’ll find your free digital download below.

These new tunes retain plenty of the previous EP’s winning slowcore character – gradually evolving keyboard drones, ghostly atmospherics and Aaron Coyne’s plaintiff but composed vocals. ‘Soulkiller’ and ‘Monsters’ both employ a busier fingerpicked guitar style, though, creating an interesting friction against the creeping tempo. The title track features some great synth smears by Declan Kelly and closer ‘Orange milky white’ is nothing less than a 3 minute indie pop hit in disguise (owing some small debt to Johnny Marr, if we’re not mistaken). In any case, it’s all very personal, intimate and beautiful, as we’ve come to expect.

Butterfly & Crab is the second in a series of four EP’s to be released by the band this summer. Physical editions will also be available in independent record shops shortly (Plugd, Wingnut, Elastic Witch).

The melodies are deceptively, and beautifully, simple and there's an unassuming quality to Aaron Coyne's singing that is likely to stay with you. That new EP is available for free digital download now, it's well worth your time to listen.