STAINS ON SILENCE

RIYL: The Cure, IceAge,
Wire, HTRK, These New Puritans, The Fall, Berlin-era Bowie/Iggy. It stands to reason that
many vital albums come critically close to never being made. The eight-track upshot of
doubt, upheaval and financial strain, Stains on Silence by Girls Names is one such release.
Following 2015''''s blitzing Arms Around a Vision, and the parting of drummer Gib Cassidy
just over a year later, the Belfast band suddenly found themselves facing down a looming
void. 'There was a finished ' and then aborted ' mix of the album, which was shelved for

six months,' reveals frontman Cathal Cully. The stumbling blocks that proved a strain be-
came the album''''s defining breakthrough. Recorded in various locations including Belfast''''s Start Together Studio with Ben

McAuley, Cully''''s home and the band''''s practice space, spontaneous creation, cut-up techniques and self-editing took centre-stage
for the first time. "We started tearing the material apart and rebuilding, re-editing and re-recording different parts in my home in
early Autumn last year,' says Cully. 'When we got them to a place we were happier with we went back into Start Together Studio

with Ben McAuley to finalise the mixes to what they are now." Where AAAV proved a brazen statement of intent, Stains on Si-
lence bounds forth as its feature-length comedown. What could have seen the band buckle became an opportunity for approach-
ing things tabula rasa. During its two-year transmutation, Cully, bassist Claire Miskimmin and guitarist Philip Quinn had a single

aim for their fourth album: to make an old-fashioned record clocking in around 30 to 35 minutes in length that made the listener
reach straight for repeat. From the Bang Bang bar-summoning swoon of opener '25'''' and the submerged disco doom of '''Haus
Proud'''' to the rapt, dub-leaning '''Fragments of a Portrait'''', Girls Names have excelled in their goal by forging an LP of synchronous
nuance and defiance. Marked by the presence of drum machines and programming throughout, these eight masterfully-woven
tales are once again commandeered by founder Cully, whose words, understated yet defiant, mine purpose and meaning from the
mire.