Agitated Radio Pilot - "A Field Day"
This new release from Dave Colohan's Agitated Radio Pilot contains 6 new songs that are amongst his finest. Dave's music is a perfect accompaniment to autumn - minor key and melancholic - although some of the songs on here sound more upbeat than normal with a full band arrangement including double bass, mandolin, guitar, banjo, melodica, piano and some unexpected wah-wah guitar. Wrap up warm, have a single malt and enjoy - this is a treat and a half. - Boa Melody Bar
Agitated Radio Pilot is singer-songwriter Dave Colohan and the six track "A Field Day" ep is his second Rusted Rail release. It is an impressive example of modern psychedelic-folk. It may take a couple of listens to get used to but soon beguiles with its poetic and deeply personal lyrics, and its autumnal, pastoral atmosphere. Stand out tracks include 'Far North' which rises into a wah-wah guitar driven crescendo and 'The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things', which sounds as if Dave is being backed by a sitar. - Galway Advertiser
Irish label Rusted Rail have released a new Agitated Radio Pilot EP, entitled A Field Day. It contains six tracks in a style that reminds me a bit of Dave’s earlier Australia-inspired works, with a bit of Holt thrown in as well. Summery feelings, a bit of the usual melancholia, and a nice instrumentation featuring, among others, Bean Dolan and Eddie Keenan of Resurrection Fern and The Driftwood Manor, respectively. - Evening of Light
Limited edition 3 inch cd release in miniature handmade sleeve, released on the Irish label Rusted Rail, they put such care and attention into their miniature packaging. The band features mainstay David Colohan along with Bean Dolan, Eddie Keenan, Gary Morrison and Loner Deluxe. A lovely rustic collection of laid back alt-folk sounds with a somewhat dark sombre feel about it. Features lots of gently plucked acoustic instruments, scratchy droning sounds and some truly haunting strings. – Road Records
Agitated Radio Pilot (David Colohan and cohorts) has a limited 3" CD called A Field Day out on Ireland's Rusted Rail label and it's a 6 track EP of earnest singer songwriter gear that straddles a folkish vibe. Our Business Lady is laughing at the lyrics, I heard a mention of watching Withnail and I which is always good. The musicians play piano, melodica, accordian , banjo etc. and it all sounds really quite delicate leaving plenty of space for the songman to do his thing. If were into the Slow Loris disc then give this a whirl. It's no happy ride mind but a goodie to weep into the whisky glass to. - Norman Records
Two years after the monumental double albums "World Winding Down" and "The Rural Arcane" (I have reviews of both published), Rusted Rail records brought us a new release from Ireland's finest folk act, Agitated Radio Pilot. How I've waited! "A Field Day" comes presented as a 3" CDR in a just as small, simple package and it contains 6 tracks, which should label it EP or mini-CD or something. I say EP and you know what I mean.Something I've stated before, but will state again, is that I've not been a very long-time listener of Agitated Radio Pilot. I started right after "World Winding Down". But I have experienced that the project has two sides, easily explained. We have the more straight forward folk side and the more experimental ambient side. And the "A Field Day" material leans more towards the folky side, which fits me and the approaching winter just perfectly. Of course, a review of a 6 track release can't contain as many letters as a review of a 24 track release, but with that said, I do not wish you to believe that a 6 track release can't contain just as much feelings as a 24 track release! "A Field Day" is simply stunning despite the length. which is something that is proven already in the first track, a sweet picking mandolin song that has high replay and sing-along value. As usual, David sings great and delivers especially in the chorus and it's by all means a fine track but "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" that awaits after it, is certainly my new Agitated Radio Pilot favourite. Oh God. Why are you doing this to me? The combination of simple piano plings and sitar (that actually ain't a sitar at all) is lovely, and the honest, sad vocals are devastating for a romantic heart like mine. The lyrics don't make it any easier for me, and it is something peculiar about David's lyric writing that makes even the most common envisagements sound, and feel, very odd and sad. I played this song on repeat a couple of weeks ago, while waiting for my bus, and I somehow melted into it and just stood there. Fixed my eyes on a dove that went to and fro on the side-walk, and all I could think was "I love that dove, I wish him a happy life". After an unknown amount of minutes the dove flew away and I came to senses again, just to realize that the bus already went by and all people around me went along with it. And I normally hate doves.Yes, "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" is for sure the most touching dark folk song of the year, and the following tracks here don't really manage to climb the same heights, but I still recommend you to finish your listening session, because you don't want to miss out on killers like "From the Ghost Gum Glades" and the gorgeous instrumental piece called "The Drunken Poet".So, time to summarize. "A Field Day" might not change the course of the world, but it's a confident EP from a project that remains unthreatened on the throne it sits on. It has only 6 tracks, but variation, instruments and moods enough to keep you cradled until the next release comes. When that ever might be. I pray that we don't have to wait another two years to hear from Dave Colohan, aka. Agitated Radio Pilot again. - The Shadows Commence
More unique pseudo-folk brilliance from the Rusted Rail label, this time in the form of Ireland's Agitated Radio Pilot. The group, which encompasses a somewhat rotating group of contributors with David Colohan at its centre, creates music which is unusual yet seamlessly enticing. The lead singer's crisp voice is unmistakeable, a distinct mish-mash of Johnny Cash, Stephin Merritt, and Leonard Cohen, his singing never far off from mere speaking. Instrumentally, A Field Day is based largely around various stringed instruments - including acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, and sitar - but several other instruments help imbue personality to the proceedings. For example, the insanely beautiful title-track would not be quite as sweet if it weren't for the double bass or the subtle addition of accordion and electronics. Meanwhile, marvellously wistful "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things," based around a repeated sitar line, is fitted with a superbly longing piano part; meanwhile, expansive "Far North" features longing solos on melodica and electric guitar. Together, A Field Day is a very strong EP from Colohan and company. Unique delivery, melodic composition, and a knack for atmosphere make these six tracks remarkably unforgettable. - Indieville
"A Field Day", the latest from Agitated Radio Pilot, hits the expected high-climbing mark which David Colohan (also of United Bible Studies) seems unable to avoid. Through a wholesale embrace of the baroque Pop masters the album glories in the simple pleasures of solid songwriting and deft musicianship, void any trace of catholic guilt or precocious insecurity. Though the title track more than ever recalls Magnetic Fields for the somber gait of banjo and baritonic of Colohan’s voice, subsequent “The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things” takes a turn toward the dusky Tragically Hip, with its ringing bouzouki and kitchen percolation, and even a bit of Current 93 in the droning, teetering, Orientalist poetry of “From the Ghost Gum Glades”. For these sessions joined by four pals on a variety of instruments featured more or less soloistically to give maximum sonic wardrobe to these six tracks, each sustaining the same taut song construction and mature even-keel. “Far North” follows this spate of fatless singles with an extended rave-up of deep reverb and grated strings in chamber perfection. “The Drunken Poet” is a briefer outro and (surely, willfully ironic) the only wordless track, a session of picking like analogue switches to codify the entire strand of the discs impossible DNA. Comes in RR’s standard, handmade insert with photo paste-on and heavy sleeve. - Animal Psi
Yawning Chasm "The Shadow is That Hidden"
We've got a couple of 3" cd's from the excellent Rusted Rail label this week. I've been assigned 'The shadow is that hidden' EP from Yawning Chasm, a one man bedroom producer and songwriter (and one half of Mirakil Whip) Aaron M. Coyne. This is beautifully crafted, hypnotic folk of the like you don't hear much nowadays. Simple guitar motifs are punctuated by thoughtful and reflective vocals and executed in short sharp doses. Some of the additional guitar effects and sounds help push these formal sounding tracks into the space zone. This is particularly apparent on opener 'To the void' and 'Tumble River' that have a slight Syd Barrett feel to them. Sort of reminds me of my fave solo artist of the moment, Ducktails sans all the mashed up sound experiments and such. Blissful musings and beautiful melodies, what more could you ask for eh? Not much.... - Norman Records
Yawning Chasm is Aaron Coyne, one half of Irish duo Mirakil Whip. Slow shed-recorded songs accompanied by gorgeous (mandolin/guitar) finger-picking, casio and a haunting use of delay/reverb and shortwave radio that gives the songs the feeling of being beamed in from afar. Dreamy melancholia and a wonderful companion release to the Agitated Radio Pilot 3".
- Boa Melody Bar
Yawning Chasm is the stage name of Galway underground singer-songwriter Aaron Coyne. He is well known to many music heads in the city as one half of electro/guitar band Mirakil Whip, but through Yawning Chasm he explores a modern, ruminative, psychedelic folk-rock. The stand-out track on the EP is 'Tumble River' where Aaron's voice echoes through a sinister, swirling, spindly sound produced by a Yamaha Portosound keyboard fed through several effects pedals. Although I hate pigeon holing things, the song is excellent Goth-psych-folk. The EP's six songs were written, performed, and recorded by Aaron onto 4-track cassette in the cosy confines of a shed in Galway, throughout April, May, and June. It may sound primitive (4-track was the height of technology in 1967!) but "The Shadow Is That Hidden" has a rich, deep, and full sound, more impressive than its humble origins suggest. - Galway Advertiser
Another beautifully presented release from this Irish-based label. The cd features six tracks from Yawning Chasm, which is basically a solo outing from Mirakil Whip member Aaron M Coyne. The album was recorded in early 2009 to four-track cassette in Galway and features a lovely rustic selection of weird folk sounds with hints of early psychfolk and intimate lo-fi bedroom indie folk. - Road Records
It's no secret I've got a major woody for the Rusted Rail label, and with that said, I think Yawning Chasm's distressingly brief EP might be their best release thus far. In just these six brief songs, Aaron M Coyne has crafted a hauntingly exquisite work of personal, idiosyncratic psych-folk. Employing little more than his strummed electric guitar and his sublimely understated, Kozelek-meets-early-Callahan voice, Coyne designs passionate and memorable songs that come off as original despite their minimalist composition. The brief EP reaches its summit with the resplendently longing "Monsters," which weds a radiant yet low-key guitar line to a sweet vocal melody. It's a mesmerizingly pretty work that recalls work by the Red House Painters and C.W. Vrtacek. Yet this four minute bit of perfection is surrounded by an impressive supporting cast, including hypnotic "Your Bones Will Bleach White" and lachrymose "Stars are Going Out." The Shadow That Is Hidden may be frustratingly short, but it's also consistently great, and that helps make it one of the strongest psychedelic folk releases in recent memory. - Indieville
