Bitch Falcon
Staring at Clocks

From the green island of Ireland comes once again an interesting debut that adds to the commendable works with which young bands like Fontaines D.C. and The Murder Capital have shaped the new post-punk wave of recent years with their first works. The edgy and sharp sounds of post-punk, however, represent only one of the multiple spirits that stir in the succession of the ten tracks that make up Staring at Clocks by Bitch Falcon. The styles with which the Dublin trio plays are indeed much closer to certain 90s noise/grunge contaminated with shoegaze and dream-pop influences (for example, Catherine Wheel), where aggression and liveliness combine with an atmospheric and dreamy approach. Not surprisingly, the specialized press has classified Bitch Falcon by coining the label dream grunge.

Lizzie Fitzpatrick's voice eschews the typical spoken style of The Fall-esque influences of the aforementioned compatriots to set on a highly melodic register, proving capable of soaring into the most virtuosic warbles. We are not in the realm of the most die-hard ethereal shoegaze (indeed, at times the singing reaches peaks of anger worthy of the harshest riot grrrl vocals), but the sensation of being transported towards celestial shores is nonetheless strong. Powerful and substantial bass lines structure the tracks with commendable solidity and sense of rhythm and always stand out in the foreground, acting as the main pillar on which to weave suggestive chisels that overlay grainy lo-fi bursts on more crystalline electronic textures.

The single Gaslight is emblematic of this skillfully calibrated alchemy, in its robust stride between scratchy guitar riffs and heartfelt howls that gives way in the second half to rarefied horizons of dark metropolitan desolation. Following this path, the album catapults us immediately and without too many frills into action with two energetic pieces like I'm Ready Now and Sold Youth. The first is a convulsive bubbling of bass and drums continuously chipped away by screeches at the edge of industrial, the second strings together irresistible bass lines on a carpet of dense sound clouds cut by repeated chimes. For its part, the following Turn to Gold extends the times evocating suave and bittersweet memories that could have been birthed from the mind of the Cocteau Twins, but with How Did I Know we're plunged back into a vortex of spirited rhythmic counterpoints ripped apart by shoegaze digressions like the one that opens at the end of the track.

The title track Staring at Clocks manages to stay on the razor edge of a crescendo ever more intense that finally explodes into an adrenaline-pumped electronic jubilation of flickering layered glows. If instead, Damp Breath is the most radio-friendly and danceable track of the album, it does not forgo drowning its punk vein under a layer of distortion effects, Test Trip moves smoothly between the melancholy of the verses and the liveliness of the choruses only to then indulge in a genuinely shoegaze turn, in the style of Asobi Seksu and Pinkshinyultrablast. Closing the album are the dissonant pseudo-grunge of Martyr, the already mentioned ghostly Gaslight and the epic final ride evoked by Harvester, in which the anxious step variously maintained until this point stretches into wide and solemn swirls of granitic consistency traversed by sinister veins.

While not reaching the levels of the early masterpieces of Black Midi and Black Country New Road, overall the debut of Bitch Falcon possesses all the attributes to be hailed as the first and very successful attempt of a band that seems to have already matured a well-defined style and identity (a mix of disparate influences contaminated in a personal way, comparable to what young promises like Wolf Alice, Flasher, and Sorry have experimented) and should be included among the names to watch in the coming years in the panorama of rock from Albion. We are waiting for a so​phomore of the same caliber to assess the endurance of their proposal.

7.5