Where is this going? The Graceland Conspiracy seem perfectly comfortable not knowing. On We Are Chaos, their debut single, the Belfast collective resists the instinct to make every musical destination immediately obvious. Instead, piano, delicate guitar, reversed textures and distant swells gradually gather, allowing the song to become a journey before it becomes a statement.
The track moves constantly between the intimate and the immense: a heartbeat and a black hole, a rose and dark matter, a funeral and a rainbow. McMahon sings, “Stars in a black sky / Moonlight in blue eyes,” before eventually arriving at the deceptively simple refrain: “We are chaos.” Yet there is very little chaos here in the conventional sense.
The song is spacious, wistful and remarkably patient. More than a minute passes before McMahon’s ethereal vocals emerge, while the arrangement slowly constructs its own atmosphere. Colin Crooks’ piano and bass provide a gentle centre, surrounded by Paul Wilkinson’s guitars and Gary Taylor’s restrained live drumming. Jon McKinley’s horns arrive towards the end, widening the sonic landscape without turning the track into an obvious climax.
That restraint is particularly striking given the project’s musical histories. Crooks, previously of PBR Streetgang and currently part of Bad Noise Monster, has moved here towards something dreamier and more atmospheric, joined by musicians whose paths have repeatedly crossed through Belfast’s music scene.
There is also something poetic about the song’s own history. Originally recorded years ago at Earth Music Belfast, We Are Chaos was shelved when its programmed drums failed to fit. Revived with Taylor’s live percussion and remastered by Audio Animals, it finally finds its way into the world.
Perhaps that is what chaos sounds like here: not collapse, but movement. Things changing direction, returning, colliding, and becoming something else.
The Graceland Conspiracy‘s We Are Chaos leaves the destination open; and in doing so, they make the journey the point!
