Irk's brand of "weird" music has allowed their career to thrive in unconventional ways over the past 11 years. Since their establishment in 2013, the band have described themselves as "Leeds' normalest weirdos". While the label itself is a contradiction, the music they've created from this unique perspective has led them to share stages with a diverse range of international artists, having toured with acts who also defy easy categorization, including Liturgy, Dope Body, Pissed Jeans, and Frontierer. This specifically "weird" identity remains at the forefront on sophomore record The Seeing House. It’s something that is bound to garner a lot of skepticism given that not many bands have managed to refine and maintain a specific kind of unorthodox chaos that is uniquely their own for over a decade. Yet, this latest listen might be one to careen pessimists, sending seismic shock waves down their spinal cords in the process.
Consider one of the teaser singles for this record, “Toothache In Prison”, which opens with a rush of frantic percussion and bass lines. The sound is reminiscent of a flock of sheep cramming into a dilapidated stable, shoving and pushing each other as they seek refuge from the filth. It's a chaotic scene filled with rats and cockroaches, held up by wet, rotting timber beams. Atop all this chaos is J.S. Gordon's high-strung vocal fry, which makes him sound like an overworked dentist having a meltdown. This frantic energy is further amplified by stabs of guitar chords that emulate the sound of a dentist cranking down a patient's chair in preparation for bicuspid torture.
Stabbing—or rather abrupt strumming—is something the band seems to be particularly fond of, especially on the following track, “Eating All Of The Apple”. Here, Gordon adopts a completely different vocal persona reminiscent of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust era, or perhaps more contemporary comparisons, like Henry Spychalski from HMLTD or Katie Healy from Dog Race. Yet, while it’s comforting to know Gordon is trying to switch things up on the vocal end—which gives these tracks a more multifaceted, split-personality feel—Irk’s instrumental ticks—like the aforementioned jarring guitar technique—either tend to get old really quickly, or they don’t hit as hard as they did the first time they’re introduced.
There's also something about the production on The Seeing House that doesn’t allow their natural distortion to pierce through in a truly shrill and fierce way. Even the thick bass lines on “The Great Wasp of Reluctance”, which are bound to put some of the best mathcore bands to shame, suffer from this issue. While much of this song, no less much of this album, delivers a tremendous pummeling you certainly can’t take, certain times feel like that scene from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia where Charlie, mired in a conspiracy, angrily chain-smokes and yells about Pepe Silvia; it's dramatic, intense and occasionally hysterical, but you're often left wondering what the hell is going on.