The latest destruction from Eamon presents six tracks from two radio sessions recorded for Bristol Community Radio (BCfm) and the Dutch Majjem Radio show.

First up, Phil Vickery welcomes Eamon to his “In-Tune” program, where he opens with ‘Nothing Like Anything’ from his 2021 Bearsuit debut album ‘A Small Blue Car.’ Quietly sashaying alongside an acoustic backing, whistling while he works his way through an introspective navel-gazer that’s equal parts Leonard Cohen contemplating the bottom of an empty glass and the Montgolfier Brothers’ Roger Quigley pondering failed relationships. Pour a stiff one and give his misery some company.

‘Underscoring The Blues’ (from 2023’s ‘We’ll Be Piranhas’) is a lot shorter than the original but still veers towards Faust-ian metallurgy with airs of Kurt Weill decadence, and ‘We’ll Be Piranhas’ trades its original harmonium-styled dirge for a stripped-down banjo arrangement that lightens the load but doesn’t completely discard a little glitchy shuffle that sounds like you spilled your pint on the album before exploding into some furious strumming that’ll make David Gedge proud!

The second session was recorded just before last Christmas for Wi Roeven and Jeroen Frencken’s Majjem program and again features acoustic versions of selections from Eamon’s two albums. The pastoral hush that permeates ‘The Choirmaster’ is a welcome improvement over “the marching band-on-acid electro glitchfest” that we puzzled over in our original review of ‘We’ll Be Piranhas,’ and the banjo accompaniment adds to the mellow groove (or maybe it’s the, ahem, Dutch atmosphere).

‘Silver Shadow’ continues in that hazy, melancholic Montgolfier mood—we never imagined that the gruff, industrialised kling-klang glitchmeister had, dare we say it… a sensitive side?! We like! ‘Avalanche’ wraps the set up on a, er, high note by dragging out the razor blade guitars for some familiar grey matter-scraping white noise (as on the studio version), while Eamon whispers some autobiographical encouragement about the music biz. That’s my take and I’m sticking with it!

There was usually an occasional left turn into quiet, library-styled music on Eamon’s previous studio albums, but if this is the new direction for the forthcoming third album, we’re already making our reservations. More like this, please!

Jeff Penczak

Eamon The Destroyer – ‘Radio Sessions’ (Bearsuit Records 2025)