Eamon The Destroyer – ‘We’ll Be Piranhas’ (2023)
A sophomore release by Eamon The Destroyer, out via Bearsuit Records.
The enigmatic Eamon (aka Annie & The Station Orchestra, Ageing Children, Idiot Half Brother, Bunny & The Invalid Singers, Jikan Ga Nai and probably a few more he hasn’t invented yet) returns with a sophomore release that continues to destroy minds and reap rewards by tantalizing us with perplexing WTF’s like the marching band-on-acid electro glitchfest ‘The Choirmaster.’
In typical Destroyer fashion it morphs into a rather pleasant bit of soothing library music before erupting into industrialised cacophony. Faust freaks take notice! ‘Rope’ plonks along like a sunny afternoon drive along the Grande Corniche in the Côte d’Azur … on two flat tires!
Eamon’s vocals have an air of Gainsbourg (after too many cigarettes) about them which can be soothing, frightening…or both simultaneously. Songs pull you in many different directions at once as if the master tapes were dropped into a blender and left for Eamon to sort them out and re-splice the segments back together. Hence, a dreamy wistful lullaby explodes into anarchic noise or a playful little twinkle with a snazzy jazzy sax backing decides it wants to grow up to be a schizophrenic horror soundtrack for some obscure giallo that’ll give Dario Argento nightmares (‘Underscoring The Blues’).
Ambient nostalgia for Eno’s Music For… series is awakened by ‘A Pewter Wolf’ which isn’t afraid to toss in some wall-to-wall shoegazey guitars to awaken somnambulists. But I don’t think I’d be too far off if I confessed to hearing a little Pink Floyd influence lurking within. And I loved the eerie-yet-angelic spiritual wordless vocals serpentining around ‘My Stars’ – haunting in a Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus mode. And just to fuck with your head one more time before heading down the pub, it ends with a five minute gap of silence before a looped hidden track suggests you “Dust yourself off/And start all over again.” Any thoughts that Eamon is suggesting you put the CD on “Replay” for maximum digestion should be taken with a grain of salt – followed by a shot of tequila and a lime slice chaser!
Jeff Penczak
Eamon The Destroyer – ‘We’ll Be Piranhas’ (Bearsuit Records, 2023)
Eamon The Destroyer – ‘My Drive’ c/w ’Silver Shadow’ (2021)
Various Artists – Eamon The Destroyer – ‘A Small Blue Car – Re-made/Re-modelled’
