New Music: Silk – Clementine

Clementine isn’t small or sweet, and its meanings may not be so easy to unpeel, but it is one heck of a song.

The second single from the Auralux LP, Clementine sees Silk – the project helmed by ex-Virgins guitarist and songwriter Michael Smyth – find shared ground between shoegaze and post-punk, combining ethereal textures, a blistering bass line, and powerhouse drumming.

The mix of clarity and cloudiness is deliberate: Smyth has described the track as alluding to “grappling with the unending march of time and our dubious grip on memory,” and that can also be heard in the lyrics’ mix of purpose and prevarication. Clementine makes me want to hear more of the album, now. You can, as it also features a reworking of last September’s single, July.

Discloses Smyth about the song, and Auralux, “There is no beauty in perfection; it feels fake and manufactured to me. I want the record to feel real, so this is the sound of visceral self-expression, of cooking valves, speakers pushing air and real drums straining under every hit.’

Auralux is scheduled for release on the 7th of May and is available to order in digital and limited-edition vinyl on Bandcamp. Head to Facebook and Instagram for streaming options and album updates. Silk tour Ireland and the UK in May and June.