Silk Release New Single ‘Clementine’ and Announce Album ‘Auralux’ with Irish and UK Tour (Irish Shoegaze)
Having spent 2025 releasing three highly successful singles and touring Ireland, including festival appearances at GazeFest supporting Whitelands and Sweet Sweet Noise. Silk return with their most focused and realised single yet, ‘Clementine’. As well as the announcement of a mini-album ‘Auralux’, to be released in May by Blowtorch Records (IRE/vinyl) and Shoredive Records (UK/CD), along with extensive Irish and UK tour dates. Michael Smyth, songwriter/guitarist of the acclaimed but now defunct band Virgins, is the sole contributor to the project. Taking on responsibilities for all the songwriting, performance and recording. This means Silk is deeply personal to Michael. The impetus for the project came from marking a significant amount of years circling the sun and the desire to spend the remainder of his time with joyous and creative acts. On new single ‘Clementine’, Silk push into darker and more abrasive territory, leaning hard into texture and density.
Photo: credit @annalogue
Silk – Clementine (Spotify Link)
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. Vocals maintain the classic shoegaze characteristics of being lower in the mix, dreamy and introspective, soaked in reverb and textural as opposed to the message. With that in mind, melodically the vocals here are as hooky as any lead as they guide us through the hazy fog of fuzzy memories.
Recording was done by Michael in the band’s practice space, giving him time and opportunity to add layers of guitars and build the tsunami of fuzz and euphoric guitars on the track. Preferring to work at pace the track went from concept to recorded in a week. The last track written for the mini-album it pushes the boundaries of the Silk sound and shows Michael isn’t afraid to take risks with sonic identity. Mixed by AJ Das of Dublin emo-gazers Picture Postcard, Michael turned to AJ to mix given their shared love and understanding of the sound he was hoping to capture. The track was mastered by Dan Coutant of Sunroom Mastering.
Speaking of the song and wider album Michael says, ‘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.’ When the band play live Michael is joined by Cameron Leggat(guitar) and Shane McMullan (bass) who also play in Broncos with Michael, as well as ex-Virgins drummer Matthew McMullan.
When it came time to give the release a visual language Michael turned to Anna Burnett (@annalouge.jpeg) as co-collaborator. Anna jumped in the van on and early tour with Silk so it made sense that she would bring her considerable talents and eye to project. Anna also joined the band to shoot promo pics around Belfast. For the video the band shot in an abandoned office block, that now doubles as a police station for TV dramas and homes numerous artist studios. Anna produced a visual that reflects the flickers of memories we often cling to. Artwork was completed by Michael.
‘Clementine’ is the sound of Silk becoming fully realized, earlier releases already having been categorized by Michael as sonic experiments that led to the formation of the project. Previous single ‘July’, which features on the mini-album albeit with parts re-recorded and remixed, was the first step in finding Silk’s voice, ‘Clementine’ cements that. Visceral and urgent while maintaining classic shoegaze touch stones, the track feels contemporary and modern without slipping too far into nostalgia. Silk will be impossible to forget.
The album will be available to pre-order from March 5th via https://silkband.bandcamp.
You can catch the band live here:
May 14th Galway, The Ol’ 55
May 15th Cork, Fred Zeppelins
May 16th Waterford, GOMA
May 28th Dublin, Whelans Upstairs
May 30th Belfast, Ulster Sports Club
June 16th Glasgow, Hug and Pint
June 17th Hull, The New Adelphi
June 18th Northampton, The Lab
June 19th Brighton, Folklore Rooms
June 20th London, Folklore Rooms
June 21st Edinburgh, Banshee Labyrinth
Aug 28th Dublin, GazeFest
Aug 29th Belfast, GazeFest
