Let’s Set Sail Return With ‘Canaries’

Operating out of Dublin, electro-pop four piece Let’s Set Sail caught our attention last year with the release of their double A-side ‘Five of Trumps/Leon’. Meshing atmospheric, slow-burning synths with more conventional pop sensibilities, the group managed to pinpoint an ethereal sound and permeate it with a colloquial edge.

Now, in 2016, the group have returned with their latest offering, ‘Canaries’, a natural progression of their promising earlier work. The minimalist intro eases the listener in, crafting a gentle soundscape, before giving way to a chorus of triumphant vocal harmonies and bright synths. The track clocks in at a relatively short four and a half minutes, but it manages to pack a lot of experimentation into this time frame. The production is crisp and clean, the vocal takes centre stage when it needs to and the beat remains prominent without threatening to overwhelm.

Accompanying the music of ‘Canaries’ is a delightfully offbeat video, directed by David DeBarra, Naomi Keenan O’Shea and Let’s Set Sail themselves. Edited to the rhythm off a drum kit falling down the stairs, presumably by the “video man”, it follows one man’s, perhaps misguided, creative endeavours. Featuring plenty of fluorescent wigs, lads smoking Amber Leaf and something about eggs, it’s basically a modern interpretation of Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’, with far superior dancing, obviously.

With the release of ‘Canaries’, Let’s Set Sail have offered a nice little sonic, and visual, antidote to the week we’ve just had.