Autumns

When the first Autumns tracks emerged in 2013, few could have predicted the road the project would eventually take. Christian Donaghey, the Derry-based artist behind the moniker, followed up his early work with stellar releases on Clan Destine Records, neither of which bore much resemblance to the Autumns of Terrible Tuesday (Downwards, 2014). Perhaps there is good reason for the plural name: there are the “golden” Autumns with their warm, lo-fi psychobilly-like tunes, and then there are the numbing, no-future-to-speak-of Autumns.

It is the latter that manifested in releases like Das Nichts and A Product Of 30 Years Of Violence. Christian’s output became significantly noisier, more electronic, and glacial—built on drum-machine beats, distorted vocals, and screeching guitars. While often described as a mix of industrial and shoegaze, it might be fairer to say that Autumns operates as an early industrial project—music from a time when the genre was defined less by musical tropes and more by ideology, a sort of Situationist offspring inspired by Foucault, Ballard, and Bataille. Christian certainly possesses the musical bravery required for such an undertaking.

In the records

STM 208 serves as a mirror for the author’s own works. A significant part of the sonic ideas on this compilation can be traced back to sensibilities within the music of Autumns. That said, this all-vinyl mix is surprising in its layout and feels remarkably deliberate. It follows what might be characterized as a manic-depressive internal monologue with distinct peaks and valleys.

The narrative begins on a low note with Regis’ Public Information Film project, its detached noise obfuscating the coming mood swing into the grainy bubblegum shoegaze of Medicine’s “Aruca.” After several unexpected classics—the slapstick outsider rock of the Fire Engines sounding experimental on well-worn vinyl, and the aristocratic, ornate gothic romanticism of The Associates—we reach a euphoric moment with The Telescopes. The pattern repeats in fuzzy vinyl tones, ending with Christian’s own anxious masterpiece “Imposter Syndrome” (from The Immortal Eye compilation) followed by the post-traumatic holiday pop of Strawberry Switchblade. The track progression reflects the evolution of Autumns itself, moving from a guitar-driven, organic post-punk sound toward the colder, distant electronic aesthetic of DAF, Cabaret Voltaire, and The Human League. Nevertheless, humanity is merely obscured here, not entirely lost.

The mix finds a visual parallel in Johannes Itten’s Cubist painting Der Bachsänger (Helge Lindberg), echoing the feeling of loneliness emanating from it and the interplay between shades of blue and warm, festive tones.