Agitate the Gravel are a Cork-based band, just a few months shy of their second birthday. They contain a formula that I find is prominent in most of my favourite bands; a mixture of male and female vocals. Chris Somers, Muireann Levis, Ruairi Dale and Cormac Connolly may be a bunch of students, but don’t hold it against them.
While they have previously released demos such as the badass ode-to-fuzz ‘Interval’, ‘Wilderness Years’ is their first official single. The physical version has an extended intro, as well as an exclusive b-side, ‘Don’t Know’.
The intro welcomes us with prolonged choppy drumming, which eventually breaks into a distorted aural epic. Quite a strange lead into the calm openings of ‘Wilderness Years’, a track with Deathcab levels of meandering folk harmonies. Verses are paced and soothing, and while the boisterous chorus comes as a shock, it’s not necessarily a bad one.
“Wilderness years, they can’t last forever. We say tomorrow is the day, that we’ll show them better. Throw caution to the wind, we’re facing any weather.” It all sounds a bit emo, like your kid sister who thinks that the Junior Cert is the end of her life. But Agitate the Gravel excrete a youthful tone without dwelling on themselves. They let the instruments take centre stage, and not a droning poetic narrative. This completely transforms the song from self-indulgent mush, to a credible, thumping, pop-rock tune.
The track slips in and out of noise. It’s noisy, it’s peaceful, it’s interesting. A dreamy melody leading into a distorted riff, ‘Wilderness Years’ doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. But that’s the idea. The composition is a bit like a reflection of the formative years themselves.
‘Don’t Know’, is exactly what you’d expect to hear from a band that probably rehearses in a shed down their parent’s garden, wearing check shirts over t-shirts of their idols. But there’s potential here, lots of it. The, almost crafted, messy guitars offer a grunge take on what is otherwise a classically pop version of rock. I’m immediately struck with comparisons to The Revs in their later years—but hopefully not with the same fate. It is in this track that they wear their influences most visibly on their sleeves, sounding like the genetically-blessed lovechild of Weezer and My Bloody Valentine.
‘Wilderness Years’ is a promising track from a talented young Irish band, definitely one to download.