The eccentric twosome return with a glimmering eight minute panorama, framed by recorders that gently sprawl across an expanding loop-based soundscape.
Photo: Simon Pizzey | Words: Hazel Blacher
Not many groups can say that they were serendipitously discovered by the front man of LCD Soundsystem upon overhearing their song in a Brooklyn coffee shop. Not many, but Mermaid Chunky are certainly a worthy exception. Releasing via the James Murphy co-founded US imprint DFA Records, the audio-visual duo return with 'Céilí', the first single since their 2020 debut 'VEST'. Known for their bright, outré performance fits and loop-based, ramshackle sound that dresses up sparse electro in quirky acoustic frills, here the Stroud-via-Margate pair, Freya Tate and Moina Moin, cultivate a newly found sonic warmth that soaks deep into the skin like a quenching herbal balm.
'Céilí' is the sort of song that wraps itself around you, a soft sticky heat that slowly turns your limbs to butter as it sweetens the air. At first, a recorder coos in triumphant solitude, waddling into the light like a brazen little duckling, before a gaggle more chirpily bustle in abreast, scurrying with somewhat gaelic inflection. Gradually dilating beneath, a drone of mellowing synth legatos roll out a downy horizon of harmony, beckoning the ensuing vocal flecks and chants forth to dance above like slithers of suntrap light projecting onto a familiar leafy pasture close to home.
Playing out in spectacular orderly chaos, here Mermaid Chunky manage to produce something ripe with whimsy and rooted straight into the heartstrings, signalling a very exciting return for the colourful duo.
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