Location: Leeds
Country: United Kingdom
Genre: Experimental rock
Full length: This Seeing House
Format: Digital CD, vinyl (see Bandcamp link for more information)
Label: Nefarious Industries
Release date: September 26, 2025
On “This Seeing House,” Irk crafts music to evoke soimething primal, associated with confronting the unknown. Whether lying awake in your room at night, visiting an old house where ghosts are said to dwell, or drifting alone in the abyss of space with nothing but infinite emptiness surrounding you, the band aims to reach that same part of your psyche that first stirred your unease when faced with unseen dangers. They tap into the core part of you, preserving the memory of that initial sensation of anxiety.
I’ll admit that the first time I heard this album, I didn’t quite know what to make of it. It took several close listens before this seemingly disjointed cacophony began to reveal its complex basis though it was out of sync with progressive music as I knew it. It was something far, far removed from any approach to songwriting I’d heard before, and it was growing on me.
While popular entertainment bombards us with overt, overwhelming tension designed to gratify us in the moment of exposure, Irk’s math rock relies on the gradual, slow burn exemplified by the writings of Ray Bradbury, radio serials like Inner Sanctum and The Saint with Vincent Price, and science fiction anthologies like Twilight Zone and Outer Limits. They’re loud, boisterous, and in-your-face, but rather than unloading everything, they establish a mood and steadily build momentum, gradually increasing tension until it reaches a point where the effect endures long after the initial experience.
The band’s music resides somewhere between heavy industrial, intricate groove, and jazz-metal fusion, only more unpredictable, eschewing the kind of conventional song structure we're accustomed to. Irk’s composing method is based on the slow emergence of chaos through methodical improvisational freestyling, abrupt shifts in direction that increases in intensity or restrained energy that slowly unravels to unveil a profound psychosis, an inner turmoil struggling to break free from its confines. All this originates from bass guitar-driven songwriting, which adds a touch of Primus into the mix.
Beyond the mindset that gave rise to the music, Irk’s lyrical concepts and the vocal styles conveying them from their minds to your perception originate from even more unconventional, obscure sources. These draw from even more distant realms of imagination or madness, depending on your perspective. Human perceptions are distorted and expressed through metaphors only the unhinged might spend more time than usual contemplating. Alternating between moments of slightly disturbed introspection and insane obsession, it suggests a force capable of dismantling your mind only to remold it.
Maybe this is where the core fear and horror of “This Seeing House” resides: in embarking on such a journey without knowing where it will lead or how deeply it will affect you once you finally arrive at your destination. This is the kind of album that demands not only resilience but also patience to listen to intently and to grasp why they aim to challenge your perceptions of music. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
J.S. Gordon: Vocals
Ed Snell: Bass
Matthew Deamer: Drums
Track list:
1. Idiot Plot
2. Toothache in Prison
3. Eating All of the Apple
4. The Finer Things in Life
5. Lifetime Achievement Award
6. The Great Wasp of Reluctance
7. Abraxas Casino
8. My Life in Bins
9. Love is a Windsock
10. Wedding, Berlin
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