Hooked by the playful guffaw of the title track, Irritation on Demand I sought the album. Between September and Christmas it shot its way up the list of ‘most listened albums of 2025’ here at Shonkphonics and even now hasn’t remotely bored me.
Categorised as ‘no wave’ and featuring three musicians of ‘other band fame’ the trio have created a flawless entry of catchy, off-kilter tunes that suit any occasion. Eleven ultra-tight tracks are delivered to one’s ears, each one with the attitude of two schoolchildren up to low-key mischief in the back of science class. I applaud the paired-back drums, angsty and minimal, if I’m right I counted one use of a ride cymbal throughout the entire album, relying heavily on the thud-thud of toms and increasing drama with rampant smashing of open high-hats. Basslines like warm morse code feel like a stern but loving parent trying to direct the guitar to make good life choices, meanwhile the guitar, although lined beautifully with the drums and bass presents like a pissed-off child reluctantly playing along but still trying to push the limits of everyone around. And on top of this, a shrill, clipped vocal delivery, every word reduced to one syllable, a vocal doubling as the lead synth almost, dancing and playing atop the mechanical delivery of instruments.
You ever heard an album where the opening track is a tale told from the perspective of a self-aware, poor quality, supermarket bought houseplant? No I didn’t think so! The contrast of the delight in buying a plant that confesses to you that it WILL die before highlighting the entropic mechanics of nature and decay is extremely esoteric and makes for one of the strongest opening tracks I’ve ever heard…
be
bi
bo
bum
The eye-rolling reluctance of a song about the fucking sun. Oh you like the sun? Actually, we think it’s shit, it pisses us off.
Their tunes are equal parts abrasive and warm, the latter primarily delivered by the bass, juxapposed to the nail-bed of guitar, drums and stich n’ poke vocals. Kind of like scrubbing yourself with a brillo bad in a lovely warm bubble bath. The subject matters are far from abstract, houseplants, emails, horses and ethereal rich-only crystal spas (okay, this is not on the album it’s on a three-track EP that I’m kicking myself for not ordering along with the album!) however the overall delivery of tunes is so far from conventional that you’ll be hypnotised, there’s no more spin out of a tune on the album than ‘The Twist’ a carnival-esque guitar noodle bounces along whilst your fed seemingly impossible instrutions on what should be a simple dance – and then there’s that hi-hat attack on the chorus, a flurry of chaos that makes you think ‘uh oh shit I need to do this dance, okay okay’ like the band is impatiently tapping its foot on the floor, waiting for you to choreograph yourself to their sound.
There is peril to be experienced when listening to this album, ‘bopping around like an unkept cadre of lollypops’ I don’t know what that means but it unsettles me, but I want more. This is an album of perfect length, concise in its musical and thematic delivery, you’ll want more but you can simply start the album again and you’ll hear new things, your favourite track will change, mine does on every listen – although, the previously mentioned ‘Crystal Spa’ featured on their three-track EP (available on Bandcamp) is consistently one of my favourites, I have a soft spot for songs that feature the same word in a small area of time and this is one of those, it’s also, in my mind a qwerky homage to Grandaddy, because it reminds me of Crystal Lake and it is perhaps the track that has the most ‘indie warmth’ to it, like it’s weirdly melancholy for some reason, I think it’s the ever so slight fantasy / sci-fi element of this exclusive spa off somewhere on some alien planet, dominated by shiny crystals and extravagant wealth. ‘So rally round the tub, we’ll drop a laser down from above, then bathe real clean in crystal steam’ why is this so good?! Why is it so much fun to sing BLAH BLAH as loud as possible to this tune? I don’t know, but it is.
Equally, the chorus in Lion’s Pride is a doozy, there’s something so much fun about songs that feature sounds and non-words, ‘do-le-lo-le-lo-la-loo-la’ is my interpretation of the opening to the chorus of that tune and again, it is SO much fun to sing aloud whilst in the car, or at home or wherever you may be when you take your dose of Sensor Ghost.
The band name refers to some space phenomenon, look it up, but I initially assumed it was the name given when you see an automatic door open but there’s no one there ‘must be a sensor ghost’ which got me thinking about the bored store-clerk, leaning on the counter, watching the door open and close to an invisible customer and how it was this boring yet peculiar tedium that led to these songs. Of course, none of this is true, but it tracks with the overall attitude of the tracks… there’s an attitude there, like a ‘I’m sick of telling you over and over’ or ‘I know I’m better than this job’ like I’m negging the band for listening to the album again because they’ve already played it to me… and I’ll just keep listening to it until one day track one will simply be the vocalist telling me that they’re not playing them again and I’ve had my fill. But I’ll never have my fill.
Oh, they’re from Washington by the way, the state, in America. I’m really hoping they’ll come play in the UK sometime soon!
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