Mull It Over 006: Chalk It Up
The latest edition of the newsletter focuses on one of Northern Ireland's most important new bands: Chalk
Once every decade or so a band comes along and not only stops you in your tracks, but rams into your tracks, proceeds to run you over, puts it in reverse to run you over again, once more for good measure - before speeding off to claim another unsuspecting victim, happily listening to what they thought was their favourite band.
There are a handful of bands who have had this impact on me. I’ve been horribly mangled by scenes and bands from as far as 1980s Los Angeles to 2000s New York to 2010s Brixton. The Strokes to Skid Row to Shame. But none of it has ever been mine.
Here in Northern Ireland, I was not serendipitous enough to come of age when our homegrown acts crossed over from local folk heroes to part of the popular music lexicon. The hippies got Van. The punks got The Undertones and Rudi. The 90s tweens even got their very own Big Star, in the form of Ash. I got Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water on CD.
But here comes Chalk. A band that on the very first listen I could tell was the band. A contemporary powerhouse with songs that feel and sound like the National Theatre in London or that one half of the Ulster Museum in Belfast. It’s brutal and it’s beautiful all at the same time. This is music that is vital, current and innovative; it is most certainly the sound of now.
Where else, than in a country that has been left hung out to dry in the absence of a functioning government for two years, with a dilapidated and depreciating capital city would you expect such an abrasive art form to take root and flourish as it has done so here? Heavy rotation on BBC Radio 6 Music and working with superproducer (horrible term, granted) Chris Ryan, one would very quickly surmise that Chalk is, indeed, the business.
Just when it relents and gives you space to breathe, you find yourself pulled under again. It is unrelenting stuff. It is unnerving. It is vital.
‘Industrial’ music commonly leads us on a path back to Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. An unforgiving assault of synthesised, mechanical sounds complemented by the more elemental band fixtures of guitar, bass and drums. It is the unholy marriage of rock and roll and electronic music. If you add elements of the ubiquitous post punk of the last five years from bands such as IDLES, Fat White Family or The Murder Capital, then my friend, you’ve got yourself the cool, en vogue band of the moment - with something to say and a reason to say it. You’ve got yourself Chalk, from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Grab it and change it, it’s yours
Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster
Chalk released their debut EP Conditions in May of 2023. If you combine the dread of Boards Of Canada’s Geogaddi with under rumblings of krautrock and the inescapable angst and rage of Reznor’s The Downward Spiral, you would be halfway to understanding the sound on Conditions. That the superbly produced songs come with the instantly recognisable Northern Irish vocal tone, it makes it all the more authentic. More urgent. More confident. More ours.
At the time of writing the band are in the studio working on a follow up to the Conditions EP. Chris Ryan is back behind the glass and with momentum behind them, expect to hear the results of Conditions II across your airwaves, assuming you’re not tuned to Magic FM or Heart 90s.
The latest single ‘Claw’, released just two weeks ago is a masterful turn, suspending traditional verse/chorus sequencing in favour of meandering hallways of horror and hope. Just when it relents and gives you space to breathe, you find yourself pulled under again. It is unrelenting stuff. It is unnerving. It is vital.
Conditions II is released on March 1st via Nice Swan Records.
How to Enjoy Industrial Music:
Wine: Northern Rhône French Syrah
Book: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Where: Berlin
Issue 006 of Mull It Over is in the bag. Continued thanks to everybody for reading and especially to all of the subscribers. I plan to take some time to curate the Cool Gig Guide for March and publish in a couple of weeks.
Please find the incredible ‘Crawl’ by Chalk on the Mull It Over Spotify playlist below, and remember to save/follow.