Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Some Further Listening
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Every couple of years – at best – a band comes along to melt your brain. A band that’s impossible to pigeon hole and – on paper at least – should be quite unlistenable. Yet you end up won over. These days, that band is Strength NIA – from Derry City. They use half broken machinery, ancient drum machines and wonky keyboards…. then a guy called Rory Moore rants over the top. The band have talked us through their fantasy of re-inventing pop, following some kind of apocalyptic disaster. They imagine dragging sound out of smouldering equipment, recording it in the most lofi manner possible then playing it back through a broken cassette deck found inside an abandoned car.
Such a scenario, real or otherwise, doesn’t help sell them to the masses. In fact – I’m certain many (if not most) of you reading would struggle to enjoy Strength NIA – on any level – should you go check them out. But trust me – there’s something weirdly likeable – and honest – about this band, so it’s worth having a crack. They’re akin to acts who are proudly uncompromising, minimal yet noisy, lo-fi yet outspoken. The likes of The Fall or – more recently Sleaford Mods. And then there’s those lyrics.
Take ‘1956 Olympics’. The background to this song – released last year – is pretty remarkable. It’s presented as a response to ‘Creggan Shops’ – released a few years back by a band called The Shifters. They’d been inspired to write about the troubles after watching a 1979 BBC TV documentary about the Creggan estate. ‘Meet you down the Creggan shops, where I’ll take a kneecap’ goes the oddly catch chorus. Weirdly, The Shifters are from Melbourne, Australia.
During ‘1956 Olympics’, Rory
points out that the lads Played by Steve Lamacq on 6 Music. Steve referencing the track title needs sampled and remixed. from The Shifters have never set foot in Derry – let alone the shops of Creggan estate – yet pays homage to ‘the greatest song in the world’. He imagines sailing to Australia, presumably to meet the band, while making reference to an old Derry boxer called Charlie Nash. He fought in an olympics, yes – but to add to the confusion, it wasn’t the 1956 edition. Needless to say, it’s a weird piece of music. Not exactly ‘Teenage Kicks’.
The subsequent album – ‘Northern Ireland Yes’ – is bonkers. ’Brendan Bradley’ is Kraftwerk in a reflective mood – but without the beats. ‘Organ Jack Donahue’ is
a sort of folk ballad – but soundtracked by what sounds like a disfunctioning arcade machine. Then, amongst the chaos, there’s a pretty duet called ‘Chest’ – recorded with a singer from Letterkenny called Neptune N. It’s borderline conventional – which kind of makes it the weirdest track of all. Also – I think they’re bigging up brown sauce and League of Ireland football in there somewhere too.
There’s an assumption this band are weirdness for weirdness sake – perhaps a little contrived. But I’ve met them – I’ve watched them record barefoot sessions for our radio show – I’ve listened to them explain what they do and why they do it. And it’s real, it’s genuine. And while the music is demented and the lyrics unhinged – the sentiment is heartfelt and the whole package oddly fun. It’s also pure, undiluted punk and – unless you’ve some very specific records in your collection – like nothing else you’ve heard before.
For that reason – it’s a record you won’t ever forget listening to. And perhaps – that’s exactly the point.
Strength NIA’S debut album ‘Northern Ireland Yes’ is available to pre-order on vinyl now. Search for the bands ‘Fund It’ campaign for details.