windings

Windings – I Am Not The Crow
1/5 Rating

(Out On A Limb)

It seems there are few bands with names as apt as Windings, a group whose latest collection of tracks echo this sentiment with every twist, turn and mournful meander. A one-time one-man band, with roots in Limerick hardcore duo Giveamanakick and Steve Ryan’s 2005 album of the same name, the now five strong band’s third record is deliciously devious, showcasing some surprisingly dark themes such as isolation, desolation, disillusionment and anger.

Opener ‘Sun In My Bones’, a sombre song full of disarming charm, proves a slow burner, not a million miles away from the lighter side of Giveamanakick. Heart-wrenching tones entwined with some truly anguished lyrics – “things I see when I close my eyes / People singing about a past I can’t recognise” – make for a treat of a track. Before you can get too comfortable, however, a mid-album crescendo begins with ‘Alkaterian Are Alright’ – “breathe in, slow down, sleep in” – which rushes into the off-beat structure of thundering, chanting number ‘This Is A Conversation’. Title track ‘I Am Not The Crow’ brings up the rear rounding off an intensely raw and emotional mid-section with some frantic, post-hardcore thrashing.

In keeping with the likeable irregularity of the album as a whole, closing songs ‘In Need Of Some Repair’ and ‘Local Broken Man’ end the album on a much quieter note – descending into the lonesome and desolated “towns of carcassed concrete caverns” while still managing some uplifting undertones when “the brightest light did shine”. Offering an incredibly eclectic mix of songs with a range not often seen these days, I Am Not The Crow features songs both flavoured with folk and peppered with some more progressive material. Here Windings manage the hard task of playing the rough off the smooth to create a confident, sure-footed, and finely honed collection. Easily one of the best Irish albums of 2012. - state.ie

Windings – I Am Not The Crow (****)
“I Am Not The Crow is a late contender, surely, for the Choice Music Prize.” - Irish Independent

Windings – I Am Not The Crow (****)
“I Am Not The Crow is a late contender, surely, for the Choice Music Prize.” - Irish Independent

I Am Not the Crow Out on a Limb****

It seems strange now to think of Steve Ryan in his former guise as one half of Limerick hardcore instrumentalists Giveamanakick – especially because his current band are about as far removed from head-pounding beats and body-splitting riffs as you can get. And it says a lot for Ryan’s diversity that he has moved so fluidly between both styles, even if his first tentative steps with Windings in 2005 (initially a solo project while he was still part of Giveamanakick) and album No 2 in 2010 felt a little unsteady.

Seven years on, the Limerick man has hit his stride in glorious fashion. Windings is now a permanent five-piece band, and their third album is a confident, finely honed collection of indie-rock that ducks and dives between sweet, laidback folk and grimy wig-outs with dexterity and self-assurance.

I Am Not the Crow is an album of two halves. The first four tracks were recorded in Montréal with Godspeed You! Black Emperor man Efrim Menuck, the latter tracks in Donegal with Villagers guitarist- producer Tommy McLaughlin. But the collection is no less coherent for its bisection. If anything, it adds to the likeable irregularity.

Laidback opener Sun in the My Bones is audibly influenced by Neil Young, while the comparatively frantic pogo- friendly Alkaterian Are Alright recalls Weezer, or perhaps even early Foo Fighters. Lead single This Is Conversation also lies within the Montréal- recorded batch, a skittering, grooving song that takes us on a meandering rock odyssey and exhibits Ryan’s talent for melody and offbeat structure.

On the other hand, the grizzled thrust of the title track sounds distinctly Irish, using the same sort of slackened gloominess one used to hear in bands Turn and Whipping Boy, while Local Broken Man’s loose, ramshackle murmur trickles to a close like something from Simple Kid’s back catalogue.

Playing the rough off the smooth is no easy task, but Ryan and his band have forged an impressively sure-footed and enjoyably varied record. From hesitant beginnings, Windings have become a band to be reckoned with. - Irish Times

I Am Not the Crow Out on a Limb****

It seems strange now to think of Steve Ryan in his former guise as one half of Limerick hardcore instrumentalists Giveamanakick – especially because his current band are about as far removed from head-pounding beats and body-splitting riffs as you can get. And it says a lot for Ryan’s diversity that he has moved so fluidly between both styles, even if his first tentative steps with Windings in 2005 (initially a solo project while he was still part of Giveamanakick) and album No 2 in 2010 felt a little unsteady.

Seven years on, the Limerick man has hit his stride in glorious fashion. Windings is now a permanent five-piece band, and their third album is a confident, finely honed collection of indie-rock that ducks and dives between sweet, laidback folk and grimy wig-outs with dexterity and self-assurance.

I Am Not the Crow is an album of two halves. The first four tracks were recorded in Montréal with Godspeed You! Black Emperor man Efrim Menuck, the latter tracks in Donegal with Villagers guitarist- producer Tommy McLaughlin. But the collection is no less coherent for its bisection. If anything, it adds to the likeable irregularity.

Laidback opener Sun in the My Bones is audibly influenced by Neil Young, while the comparatively frantic pogo- friendly Alkaterian Are Alright recalls Weezer, or perhaps even early Foo Fighters. Lead single This Is Conversation also lies within the Montréal- recorded batch, a skittering, grooving song that takes us on a meandering rock odyssey and exhibits Ryan’s talent for melody and offbeat structure.

On the other hand, the grizzled thrust of the title track sounds distinctly Irish, using the same sort of slackened gloominess one used to hear in bands Turn and Whipping Boy, while Local Broken Man’s loose, ramshackle murmur trickles to a close like something from Simple Kid’s back catalogue.

Playing the rough off the smooth is no easy task, but Ryan and his band have forged an impressively sure-footed and enjoyably varied record. From hesitant beginnings, Windings have become a band to be reckoned with. - Irish Times

I scream for Crow

Limerick-based songwriter Stephen Ryan has been inching towards excellence for the past decade. Starting out as half of the brain-blistering hardcore duo giveamanakick, he originally devised windings as a solitary, bedroom-based side project, releasing a lo-fi, pastorally-inclined self-titled debut LP in 2005.

Ryan has since gone full-time with the ever-evolving windings, expanding the group to a quintet since 2010’s accomplished sophomore release It’s Never Night. Recorded partly in Montreal with Godspeed! You Black Emperor’s Efrim Menuck and initially available as a 300-only picture disc, the Irish boys’ third, I Am Not The Crow, is another sizeable leap forward. Though the folk-tinged introspection of It’s Never Night again shines through on tracks such as Cleaner and the yearning Something Outnumbered, Ryan and co’s natural Dinosaur Jr-inclined overload is also given full rein on the exhilarating title track and the steely riff logic of Alkaterian Are Alright.

Elsewhere, the driving, Magazine-esque drama of This Is A Conversation can’t fail to intrigue, but it’s the expansive prog-punk sweep of the eight-minute Sun In My Bones, with its autumnal feel and lengthy, star-sailing guitar solos, that allows I Am Not The Crow to fly straight with near-perfection.
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Out On A Limb | OOAL 26 (LP) - Record Collector

“Melodies that will get you every time…a compelling debut album” Jim Carroll,The Ticket (Irish Times) - The Ticket

“Windings shows how to deliver a record that’s not just about lashing out riffs and teenage poetry…gorgeous” www.eclectichoney.com - eclectichoney.com

“windings sound is simple, seductive and so pared-down that you’ll find yourself being totally bowled over” Hot Press - Hot Press