And So I Watch You From Afar
Megafauna
VELOCITY
Most of us are lucky enough to have a friend whose love language is the gift of surprise and spontaneity—someone who feels a sense of satisfaction not from self-indulgence, but in seeing your face light up with a smile because they’re allergic to the mundane. And So I Watch You From Afar is that friend (maybe even the best friend) to indie-philes addicted to the art of instrumental math rock and the myriad ways it can sound fresh with some key alterations. They’re not a new band, but at this point they may as well be: After lingering under the radar for almost 20 years, issuing five LPs on various independent labels, they hopped aboard Equal Vision’s partner label Velocity Records for the release of 2022’s Jettison. With its follow-up Megafauna, the quartet from Belfast, Ireland, have hit their groove, and should now be considered mandatory listening for fans of Maserati, Battles, and Don Caballero.
In fact, over the course of And So I Watch You From Afar’s new nine-track offering, it sounds like the guitarist from those latter two bands, Ian Williams, is playing on the record—that’s how closely the light-as-a-feather finger-tapping touches resemble his distant guitar sound. The likeness is particularly noticeable in the first 30 seconds of album openers “North Coast Megafauna” and “Do mór,” and again later on “Years Ago.” One of the critical distinctions is that ASIWYFA are led by two guitarists, not just one; together, Rory Friers and Niall Kennedy’s interplay demands that the band’s music be listened to through headphones or a multi-channel audio system.
Another one of And So I Watch You From Afar’s key personality traits is their embrace of the quintessentially indie loud-and-quiet dynamic that continues to be revisited every few years by younger bands. Pixies all but trademarked the affecting dynamic in the late ’80s, after which Nirvana propelled it into mainstream popularity, and Mogwai later reimagined it by pushing both the loud and the quiet polarities to the extreme. ASIWYFA breathe new life into this previously validated dualistic styling, making it all their own by pouring almost precisely equal amounts of loud and quiet like a master baker who carefully measures a recipe’s prescribed ingredients. The results are glorious, positively affirming (and affirmingly positive)—and downright fun.
And So I Watch You From Afar may not reinvent the wheel on Megafauna. They probably didn’t set out to, because their indisputable adeptness at twin-guitar interplay, copious amounts of time signature changes, expertly executed mixed-meter, and on-a-dime pivoting prove the band has the ability to do so. However, they prove strikingly skillful at making sharp turns without losing the attention of the listener as they strive to service their songs instead of just wowing the listener with shallow shock value. Noise rock easily lends itself to messy sprawl, but ASIWYFA are more adept than ever at keeping themselves in check here. Their talent is most convincingly reflected in the two-part centerpiece of the record, “Mother Belfast,” an epic adventure that runs a combined nine minutes and may ultimately stand as the high watermark in the band’s entire career.
Whether or not that turns out to be the case, Megafauna is a thoroughly bedazzling listen illustrating that And So I Watch You From Afar’s hard work has resulted in them fully realizing a strain of math rock they can claim as all their own.
