Belfast's Virgins | Debut single Signalling | Blowtorch Records vinyl
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Belfast's Virgins premiere 'Signalling' ahead of EP release

Updated: Sep 12, 2022

Hazy and shoegazy, this first single signals a heavenly EP, on its way on pink vinyl.

 

Track: Signalling

Band: Virgins

Released: September 2 2022


Cover art for Signalling by Virgins


Opening with swathes of choral shimmering reverb and an ethereal haunting vocal Signalling marks the first single taken from Virgins upcoming debut EP Transmit A Little Heaven. The EP is available to pre order now on glorious pink vinyl.



Virgins are a Belfast based band with Michael Smyth at its hazy centre and, after a false start with their first vocalist, he is now joined by the extraordinary voice of Rebecca Dow on this glorious slice of fuzzed up, reverb soaked shoegaze. A somewhat reductive term for this complex, heavy, and melodic track but it does anchor it firmly in My Bloody Valentine/Slow Crush/Cocteau Twins territory.


As we noted in our review blog when Virgins joined Blowtorch Records, shoegaze "...was used as a perjorative term by the thickheaded musical press of the time who preferred the laddish behaviour of Britpop and boorish US rock behemoths." As it transpires it's outlasted any 90s genre as a valid and vital musical force and Virgins are pushing it forward.


This initial dream pop intro of Signalling gives way to a grungier riff that wouldn’t be out of place on any 90s Sub Pop record. And over all that beautiful backing drifts that ethereal goose bumping voice as if the wall of noise is protecting a fragile centre of inner beauty.


Michael relates "lyrically Signalling is a wanton cry for more, of trying to fill an unending void and the frustrations found within that insatiable desire. Coupled with the impending inevitability that there is a permanent and definitive end for everything and the knowledge that this will come unsatiated. The vocals are a whisper in your ear from a long forgotten ghost laden with regret, melancholia and a desire to return to a more innocent time." As I said, there's an inner beauty here which bears searching for.


Play loud and play long.




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