Beach Comber

stream And So I Watch You From Afar guitarist's baroque pop solo LP as Beach Comber

Beach Comber may sound like the name of the latest chill lo-fi buzz band, but don’t judge this book by its cover because you’d be missing out on a very special record if you did. It’s the new solo project of Rory Friers, guitarist of long-running Irish post-rock band And So I Watch You from Afar, and though it’s a “solo project,” his debut album Parting Cuts has the kind of grand, baroque pop arrangements that it put it in the lineage of ensemble albums like Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s. It’s got a few songs that sound very directly inspired by those bands, but that’s not the only type of thing this album offers. It’s also got moments of blissful, ethereal pop and a more erratic side that recalls early Animal Collective or “Gobbledigook” era Sigur Ros. Rory says:

This record was never really meant to be heard by a lot of people, it was made in a little make shift studio near the beach on the north coast of Antrim and it was made with only two people in mind. It was about that soreness you get in your belly when you’re missing the people you love most in the world and the pride in seeing the best in human spirit come out when it’s most needed. I’d been feeling those things more than ever right now so decided it was the right time to put them out.

The album gets self-released on Friday, April 24 (pre-order on Bandcamp or pre-save on Spotify), and we’re premiering a full stream of it right here:

Tracklist
01 Parting Cuts
02 Two Set Sail
03 Kickin Back in Saquarema
04 Two Do Battle With the Mountain (So On You Go)
05 South Pacific
06 Driving on my Own
07 A Strange Christmas (Tell Us That You’re Fine)
08 Kaikoura
09 Two Come Home
10 The Next Adventure Has Its Start