Some music feels immediately familiar upon first listen. Sometimes it’s good familiar, sometimes it’s bad familiar — in the case of Ginnels, it’s definitely a good, favorite t-shirt, best dirty hole-in-the-wall venue type of familiar. Dublin-based musician, Mark Chester, describes this solo project’s sound as “your favorite Byrds and Feelies records being drowned out by your neighbor’s stoned noise jams. Except actually good.” If only we were so lucky to have Ginnels as neighbor, his jangle fuzz jams invading our space on a regular basis. Ginnels had two releases in 2011 and one in 2012, and now there’s Plumes, which is a combination of tracks from his previous works and the first of his records to be sold on vinyl (and this music was made to be heard via vinyl). Everything you hear has been recorded and mixed by Chester in his living room, making this collection all the more impressive.
The majority of the tracks are centered around quick-paced, distorted guitars and hazy vocals, but there are a couple of times where he changes up his formula, and it doesn’t throw us off as much as make us listen even more closely. “Champs” is a short but resonating kid choir sing-along, and “Friends Are Dead” employs organ synths and intense effects for an odd, expansive sound. One quality all the tracks share is their highly melodic core, something that both unifies and welcomes Plumes for repeated listens.