Mull It Over 032: ASIWYFA
Nearly 20 years in, 'Northern Ireland's band' And So I Watch You From Afar return with their seventh LP - the, at times, emotional Megafauna.
For nearly twenty years And So I Watch You From Afar have said an awful lot to an awful lot of people, without actually saying anything at all. The instrumental four-piece, proudly hailing from the North Coast of this island are stitched into the very fabric of Northern Ireland. Forget that old curmudgeon Van Morrison, take with a pinch of salt the syrup of Snow Patrol - And So I Watch You From Afar’s bass, guitars and drums continually outshine the sum of its parts and proudly cage the beating heart of Northern Ireland’s music scene. They are your favourite local band’s favourite band. They are your band. They are my band. They are Northern Ireland’s band.
That all got a bit Woody Guthrie, didn’t it?
In their nineteenth year of existence, And So I Watch You From Afar returns with its most honest and grateful album yet, Megafauna. Loosely defined as a large animal upwards of 40 kilograms, the album’s title along with its title track serve as pretty clear-cut reference to the ASIWYFA animal itself. A ‘North Coast Megafauna’ is what you get if you look this band up in the Oxford English Dictionary. Not only is the song title a reference to an epic beast, but, unsurprisingly, that is exactly what the song is - something I naively discovered as I spun it on the radio having not previously listened and found myself six minutes in looking up in a daze from my phone, realising I would be the world’s worst Radio 1 Top 40 DJ. This beast doesn't do radio edits. This is an album band. And with LP number seven pulling the listener in some welcome new directions, you begin to see that as serious as the literature and imagery is that surrounds And So I Watch You From Afar (although not always in the music itself), it is easy to tell that this is still a bunch of friends having a whole lot of fun making (post) rock and roll music together - a sentiment that cuts through Megafauna like a stick of Portrush rock.
Megafauna is a piece of work quite unlike anything ASIWYFA have released previous. The knife-like pointed guitar still shreds upon a wall of sound that would have Phil Spector’s wig blow across the North Channel faster than the Rathlin Island ferry. But there is also a lot more space to breathe here. The slower numbers seem to have proliferated on Megafauna, when compared to previous albums. Songs like ‘Gallery of Honour’, 'Years Ago’ the genuinely surprising ‘Any Joy’ pack an emotional punch that transcends the idea of ‘now here’s the slow song’ - they each exude a genuine experience and maturity and smooth the edges out just enough that you may even be successful in slipping an ASIWYFA song on to your next dinner party playlist for your in-laws, totally unbeknownst to them they are listening to a bombastic post-rock behemoth, or rather, megafauna (2022’s marvellous film score project Jettison notwithstanding). It might be their most accessible album yet.
The highlight of Megafauna, however comes with the haunting and ascendant closing track ‘Me and Dunbar’. The song coalesces the Three Triangles and the emotional heft that is felt here is a fitting tribute and end to a beautiful album from a band, who on album number seven and closing in on twenty years in music, just keep on giving.
Megafauna by And So I Watch You From Afar is out now on Pelagic Records.
After a successful album listening party at Boundary Brewery in East Belfast, alongside the launch of their latest pale ale, an official album launch show is scheduled for later this year at Limelight 1. Taking place on Friday 20th December, one assumes this may be the identity of the band’s now infamous and very much expected Christmas blowout show. No news yet on who will be on support. Keep your eyes peeled.
The Mull It Over Substack Playlist