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Premiere: Cat Palace – Slime EP

Cover Art

Having positively kicked our ass (in the perfectly non-physical realm of being smitten) with the release of his ache-laced, quasi-mystical debut self-titled EP back in February, Dublin artist David Blaney AKA Cat Palace elicited the following rather grandiose words from yours truly:  “… an Irish singer-songwriter doing something very singular indeed.”

In relatively recent hindsight, it transpires we were so on the money we may as well have been resting on a goldmine – a fact doubly confirmed with Slime, Blaney’s second, four-track EP.

Whilst continuing in the generally hushed, lo-fi leaning vein of Pedro The Lion, Jason Molina and Bonnie Prince Billy, Slime sees Blaney’s decidedly more self-assured tales very much bolstered by the presence of a backing band, comprised of Christopher Barry on bass, Philip Doran on drums and Cian Nugent on lead guitar. As such, there’s a subtle bombast here that was filled out with almost reverential, Talk Talk-like space and silence on the first release. This is no bad thing: taking on an almost glam-tinged bluster and brag, at least two songs here could very easily be stripped of any of the aforementioned sub-categorisation in being referred to as good old sturdy, straightforward, heel-kicked rock n’ roll.

Where opener and lead single ‘Real Fresh’ fuses droll commentary with woozy Americana, ‘Dat Ass’ – featuring a blazing, Wah-drenched solo courtesy of Philip Donovan – ups the ante, revealing a lyrical panache and air of braggadocio that could well warrant the latent notion that Blaney is an artist in a few akin to Father John Misty in more ways than one (we wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is a comparison that occasionally rears its head over the coming months).

Elsewhere, the brief but brilliantly fuzz-drenched ‘Sweet Romance’ offers up a hectic detour before ‘Coffee Stains’ sees a well-placed return to the stripped-back, anecdotal country-folk that made his debut EP so instantly captivating.

Clocking in at just over ten minutes, Slime is undoubtedly a strut in the right direction for Cat Palace, exposing broader creative territory and a sense of full-fledged confidence for – wait for it  an Irish singer-songwriter most certainly doing something very singular indeed.

Stream/download the EP below.

Cat Palace launches Slime at Dublin’s Thomas House tomorrow night, Friday, September 11. Go here for the show’s Facebook event page.

is the editor of The Thin Air. Talk to him about Philip Glass and/or follow him on Twitter @brianconey.