Track By Track: Silk – Auralux

We’ve covered Silk a couple of times now, most recently Clementine and the title track of their new EP. So, when we got the chance to get a look behind the creation of Auralux, we grabbed it!

Fronted by Michael Smyth, Silk explore the heavier terrains of shoegaze, where you can hear the influence of Cocteau Twins, but the tracks come from a rock viewpoint, with Pixies and The Smashing Pumpkins as an unspoken presence on the EP’s six tracks.

Auralux

Opening with title track, Auralux, we’re met with a choir of shimmering guitars, multiple layers built upon each other all contribute to the enveloping bliss. This doesn’t last long as the banks burst and we are hit with walls of fuzz and huge drums, rapturous and visceral.

Verses are a call and response between vocals and guitar, as Michael sings ‘keep me out of heaven / it’s just another place’. The chorus becomes an exercise in maximalism, fuzzes are stacked on fuzzes, dreamy leads punctuate the vocals that in true shoegaze style sit two floors below the mix, awash with ethereal reverbs that help them become part of the nebulous dream we find ourselves in.  Lyrically the song cuts across themes of loss and acceptance.

Clementine

Opening with swathes of expectant feedback, Clementine wastes no time as impossibly thick fuzz guitars test your speakers to their limits. Pummeling drums are the heartbeat of the song as they accentuate the driving guitar and provide width to the expanding chorus.

Modulated reverbs wrap themselves around blooming lead guitar lines, while the gnarled fuzz bass provides a melodic counterpoint to the vocals and considerable body to the track. Visceral verses give way to a wide cinematic chorus, opening like an aural hallucination awash in dreamy fuzz before a crushing exorcism-by-endless-reverb unravels in the midsection.

Taking inspiration from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, lyrically the track touches on universal themes of grappling with the unending march of time and our dubious grip on memory. Melodically the vocals here are as hooky as any lead as they guide us through the hazy fog of fuzzy memories.

July

As July was the song that allowed Silk to find its voice, it was essential that it be included on the mini album. With parts re-recorded and the song remixed for the album, it takes on a new form, leaning into a more classic shoegaze sound.

Structurally the track wastes no time and puts the chorus front and center, as fuzz guitars wash over us and the Mellon Collie lead line drifts along accentuating the vocals. The verses in the album version are punctuated by tremolos rising out of the sonic soundscape or wailing behind the bridge work, sounding like signals from space. The constant kick drum provides an unrelenting anchor amid the whirring guitars.

Slide Away

Half way through, or as we flip the record to side B, Slide Away opens with all instruments hammering the point, before opening into something more expansive. The track features two guests, with Shane McMullan (who plays bass in the live band) contributing bass and Taylor Wright from Scottish heavy-gazers Sunstinger, adding the ‘response’ vocals to the call and response chorus and taking the third verse in its entirety.

Slide Away explores the fragility of human connection against desire and the preservation of self. Musically the song is dense as it moves between a driving heaviness to introspective verses, and as the chorus hits it feels like we could be crushed under the weight of it.

Michael’s drums throughout the release are powerful and driving; simple and muscular beats take preference over complicated parts or fills. When fills do make an appearance, they are pounding toms or simple snare rolls, accents among the heavy rhythmic attack.

August

Penultimate track, August is the oldest track on the release, having been penned long before Silk began, it jostles for position against Slide Away as the heaviest track on the release. Huge fuzz underpinned by gnarly bass chords will test the foundations of any building or the vertebrate of any neck.

There’s an emotional weight to the track as the silent vampire of ennui sets in, Michael sings ‘Splendor revealed, constantly at arm’s length / I don’t want to know’. A single note lead guitar wails during the chorus and seems to underpin the anguish expressed in the song. The middle section feels like a moment of clarity, light that breaks through darkness which edges ever closer.

Pleasures

Final track Pleasures offers some solace and respite after the two darker tracks. Driven by dreamy distorted guitars, the track blooms like an irradiated sunrise. With a simple chorus of ‘we are in love’, it offers a sweet juxtaposition to the darker subject matter explored across the EP.

Benefitting from a more alt-rock approach the song has swathes of Siamese Dream era Pumpkins, included a soaring solo (are they allowed in shoegaze?) while still keeping one foot firmly planted in the poppier end of MBV. The track feels like it could be on an infinite fade-out, a cinematic closer to the release that leaves us feeling hopeful and optimistic against the backdrop of a burning world.

Auralux was released on the 7th of May via Blowtorch Records (vinyl) and Shoredive Records (CD) and is available in a limited-edition vinyl version on Bandcamp. For more streaming options and tour news, connect with Silk on, BlueSky, Facebook and Instagram.

Header photo by Anna Burnett