Silk ain’t new to you regulars at the Static Sounds Club house. Michael Smyth was already firmly lodged in our brains through his previous project Virgins, a band I have shouted about plenty, and when ‘Faze’ landed as a premiere here it felt bigger than a side project didn’t it? It sounded like a something new altogether. Heavier guitars, vocals pushed down into the glow, fuzz piled high, and that sense of melody sitting under all the noise. Then came ‘but then, yes’, darker and more patient, with AJ Das adding a voice that made the song feel intimate and uneasy. Silk arrived quickly, then began to take root properly.
Those roots have now grown into Auralux, the debut mini album. Smyth remains the sole contributor at the centre of it, writing, performing and recording the music himself, and that gives these songs a very personal charge. The scale is huge, with guitars stacked until they feel almost architectural, yet the human thread running through the record feels close enough to reach out and touch. Mortality, memory, loss, love and time sit inside these songs, and Smyth has spoken about that urge to spend the time he has left making something joyful. Auralux sounds like a musician taking the idea of time seriously and refusing to waste any of it. The three singles from 2025 gave us the first flashes of the project and now these six tracks together feel like the first full statement from an artist who has found the shape of their garden and filled every inch of it with sound. I like the fact this arrives as a mini album too. It feels like a document of this first period, a marker laid down before the next big thing begins to loom on the horizon. Smyth describes it like this.
‘Auralux’ is full of texture from the celestial and euphoric to the dark and dense as it creates a palpable atmosphere for the listener to reveal in.”
The title track opens the album in a wash of shimmering guitars, layered together until the opening seconds feel almost choral. There is beauty in the way the sound gathers, and then the drums arrive with a physical jolt. Fuzz pours across the track in thick slabs, while the vocals sit low in the mix, treated as another source of colour inside the noise. The verse has that call and response feel between voice and guitar, with Smyth singing “keep me out of heaven / it’s just another place” as the guitars answer back in slow flashes. The chorus then grows into something massive, with fuzz piled sky high and bright lead lines pushing through the haze. It has the classic shoegaze trick of sounding euphoric and wounded at the same time, and that makes the title track a strong opening statement.
By the time ‘Clementine’ tears in, the speakers have very little room left to plead for mercy. This was the lead single that showed Silk moving into darker and more abrasive territory, and in the context of the album it feels like the first real sink into the deep end. The guitars are thick enough to feel almost solid, pummelling drums hold the centre, and the bass gives the whole thing a gnarly melodic pull beneath the vocal line. Modulated reverbs wrap around the lead guitar parts, making them bloom and bend at the edges, while the chorus opens wide with a strange, cinematic force. The song takes inspiration from the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and you can hear that in the way it deals with memory as something unstable and tender. The vocal melody carries the track through the fog, hooky enough to follow, buried enough to feel like you are chasing it.
‘July’ holds a special place in the Silk story, because this was the first song written specifically for the project. The album version has been re-recorded and remixed, and that extra focus gives it a sharper shape. It leans into a more classic shoegaze feel, bringing the chorus forward early and letting the guitars wash across it in broad waves. The lead line has a melancholy pull that sits close to the vocal, almost shadowing it, while tremolo parts rise out of the verse like lights appearing in fog. There are little guitar cries behind the bridge work that sound like signals being sent from somewhere distant, and the drums keep the track moving with a steady pulse.
When the record flips into ‘Slide Away’, the mood becomes heavier again, and this time the weight comes with extra voices in the room. Shane McMullan, who plays bass in the live band, contributes bass here, while Taylor Wright from Scottish heavy gazers Sunstinger adds response vocals in the chorus and takes the third verse. That detail made my ears prick up straight away, partly because Sunstinger are local to me and fucking magic, and partly because the added vocal presence gives the song a USP. ‘Slide Away’ moves through desire, self-preservation and the brittle nature of connection, and the music mirrors that theme with verses that pull inward before the chorus presses down hard. When Wright’s voice enters, the whole thing opens out in a way that feels bruised and beautifully human. Cracking number this.
The oldest piece on the release, ‘August’, sits beside ‘Slide Away’ as one of the heaviest moments on the record. Huge fuzz guitars are underpinned by bass chords that feel ready to test how strong the fillings in your teeth are. The whole track carries a comforting pressure that creeps up on you. It is a brilliant image of beauty staying out of reach, close enough to torment, distant enough to make you tired. A single note lead guitar wails through the haze in the chorus, cutting through the thickness with a sound that feels almost desperate. For a song written before Silk fully existed, ‘August’ fits the album with surprising force.
After the density of the previous two tracks, ‘Pleasures’ gives the record a final lift. The guitars still carry distortion, but the mood opens with the simple chorus refrain offering a sweet and very welcome release. Bright at the edges and strange at the centre. Smyth says you can hear a touch of Siamese Dream era Pumpkins in the size of the guitars and the reach of the solo. I have to ask though, are solos allowed in shoegaze? On this evidence, oh yes please. The track keeps one foot in the poppier end of My Bloody Valentine while leaning into a more alt rock shape, and it makes for a closer that feels most generous after all the earlier bruising. The fade feels like it could carry on for ages, leaving you with the sense that Silk has found a way to end the record by maybe pointing towards whatever comes next.
By the time ‘Pleasures’ fades, Auralux has done what the best debut albums should do. It gives you enough history to understand where Silk came from, enough beautiful noise to know exactly where Smyth wants to take it, and enough feeling to make you care about every layer of fuzz and reverb on the way. These songs sound personal because they are personal, shaped by one person chasing a sound as an act of survival, joy and release. This record can bruise, it can glow, it can crush your speakers, and it can leave a small melody turning over in your head long after the noise has gone. Silk has made a debut with weight, warmth and purpose. Auralux trulyearns the glow in its name.
Auralux is released on vinyl May 7 2026 via Blowtorch Records. You can check it out over on the Silk Bandcamp page.
You can follow Silk on social media here…
Photo Credit
annalogue
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