Wifeswap – Digging EP
Wifeswap – Digging EP
Words: Liam Griffin
Wifeswap, Dublin-based post-punk/art-rock project of Joseph Brody (vocals and guitar) alongside Jasper Ryan (guitar), Cian Bates (bass), and Lorcan Connolly (drums), released their debut EP Digging on 28th May. The group calls to mind a number of other Irish rock outfits who confidently embrace their easily detectable accents on the literary lyrics they speak-sing, but Wifeswap’s sound is their own.
Digging is boundlessly energetic, though shrouded in gloominess as a result of Brody’s vocal style – reminiscent of Whipping Boy’s Fearghal McKee – and lyrics, and the group’s wrangling with tension in their songs. The rapid momentum of the driving ‘Calliope’, for example, is twice thwarted by four booming stop-start thump-thumps on Connolly’s drums before throttling headlong again. On the claustrophobic EP highlight ‘Pearl Bastard’, Wifeswap use the guitar not just as a melodic instrument, as they do on the catchy opener ‘Bosman Ruling’ which has a brilliantly moody Bates bass line, but as a tool for painting atmospheres and building tension.
‘Crutch II’, a track ill at ease, builds feverishly toward a climax that sees Brody expelling the most declarative of his many utterances of “I could never be your crutch” amidst the chaos that the track has descended, or ascended, into. The most memorable vocal melody and biggest ‘full-band-freak-out’ moment on Digging, a stirring debut, is saved for the closer, ‘Laughter’. Like the EP as a whole, it’s an impressive statement of intent, and the sound of a project finding its groove.