Mull It Over 009: Call Them The Breeze
Introducing the beer battered sounds of Northern Ireland's own hard-core troubadours - The Breeze.
“What’s the craic?”
That is how Stevie Scullion, better known to most as Malojian, greeted the audience as he stood on the altar of St. Joseph’s Church, Sailortown in Belfast just before taking the crowd on a journey through the career of another well worn troubadour: the (some would say) inimitable Neil Young.
Such benign affability has found its way in to Stevie’s latest project. Two years on from the gig in Sailortown, and with Malojian seemingly on the shelf, Scullion has emerged with a new three-piece folk-rock outfit going by the very apt name of (wait for it) - The Breeze. How’s that for levity?
Accompanying Scullion in The Breeze are longtime collaborators Christopher Coll (Lost In The Fog) and Decky McManus (The Basement). The first result of this amalgamation imbues three separate artful narratives in the tumbling, whiskey-drenched good old time lament, ‘The Whores of Life’.
The first single from the band’s delayed debut album (‘Thin Ground’ - now expected in March of this year), The Whores of Life is what you get if you ask Tom Waits to sing you a Lemonheads song. Not that you ever would. The song wears easily the influences and experiences of its three creators on its upturned, flannel sleeve. As mentioned, I hear the wicked union of Waits and Dando, but there’s also Brian Wilson, Noel Gallagher, Steve Earle, Coll, McManus and Scullion.
It’s a catchy number, and at risk of using the word ‘tumbling’ three times in one article (fuck it), it could well be the much younger cousin of a Tumbling Dice, say, thematically. Crucially, however, where the Stones’ classic is the perennial bar room singalong, The Whores Of Life is the sound of the walk home from the pub, or fearfully, the morning after.
The music video, in case you missed the point, is comprised of archival footage from the following films:
Alcoholism: Life Under The Influence (1984)
Compelling Thirst (1965/66)
Narcotics: Pit Of Despair (1967)
Subject: Narcotics (1951)
The American Alcoholic (1968)
Much like a pre-teen in HMV holding an album with a ‘Parental Advisory’ sticker on the cover, one viewing tempts you down the local for one, two or six pints of the good stuff. There’s fever in the funk house now.
Whores also instills in this listener a feeling that it must have been an absolute joy to compose. It’s all there. The band is clearly having a rollicking time, recounting misadventures, lost loves, long hangovers. The best critique I can give The Whores Of Life, however, is not that it makes one crave a pint. It is that it makes one crave a full album of songs just like it. Luckily, that’s on the cards. Don’t you know the duece is still wild?
Here, in their first release as a band, The Breeze are letting you know in under five minutes, not just that they are a band, but why they are a band.
Thin Ground by The Breeze is released on March 29th, 2024 via Style Records. Pre-Order the album at the band’s Bandcamp page below.
That’s a wrap for Issue 009 of the Mull It Over newsletter. It’s hard to believe the next one will be number ten. I have a new feature to debut for the tenth edition which should hopefully bring you some brilliant new music from the region.
I want to thank everyone who has subscribed so far. I appreciate you taking the time to read. I hope you’ve found some new music that you love. There’s so much to share. With that, if you have particularly enjoyed any back issue of the newsletter, it would be a great help if you could share it on your social media. Any support is greatly welcomed. With recent news about Pitchfork and Bandcamp, thoughtful music writing is getting harder to find. The signs are pointing to a more de-centralised, independent output. That can be good, but please support it.
As ever, the Mull It Over Spotify playlist can be found below. Follow it and find your next favourite band.