Gilla Band’s Pugnello pushes noiserock toward the dancefloor without losing its abrasive core

# Overview

Pugnello, Gilla Band's fourth album, aims to nudge noiserock closer to the dancefloor without surrendering the band's abrasive identity. Released through Rough Trade on 25 September 2026, the record keeps the group's harsh, industrial textures but introduces more pronounced rhythmic elements that make several tracks feel club-adjacent.

# Sound and production

The record's production foregrounds low-end grit and mechanical percussion. Bassist Daniel Fox's broader production work (he produced Mandy, Indiana) helps explain the record's balance between aggression and groove. Guitarist Alan Duggan Borges's outside collaborations also link the band to artists exploring the intersection of dance and noise.

Most songs keep an intentionally punishing edge: distorted bass, rattling drums, and abrasive guitar layers that bite through the mix. Where the band makes concessions to structure and melody, those moments are brief and tactical rather than a wholesale shift toward pop.

# Tracks to note

• "The Angelus": An explosive opener that revels in clatter and chaos. It sets the album's tone with maximal noise and a confrontational vocal performance.

• "Alogia": Shared prior to the album release as a single, this track continues the band's blend of menace and restlessness while pairing the sound with a memorable, eerie presentation.

• "Placeholder": One of the singles that offers a more approachable outline, making a cursory concession to pop before the album returns to harsher textures.

• "Jacobsons": Demonstrates how the record can feel electrically punitive—listeners may experience the track as a repeated, disorienting shock framed by danceable pulse beneath the noise.

• "Giraffe": Another single that sits within the band's promotional arc for Pugnello and highlights the record's tension between accessibility and abrasion.

# Themes and lyrical approach

Vocalist Dara Kiely's delivery remains jagged and often absurdist, tossing idiomatic lines into chaotic vocal arrangements. The record contains moments of unexpected clarity—one lyric advises, "Have your midlife crisis as early as possible"—but most of the album prefers fragmented, visceral phrasing over exposition.

# How Pugnello sits in context

The album follows Gilla Band's established noiserock trajectory while aligning them with a cluster of contemporary acts attempting to insert dance elements into abrasive music. That connection is visible in the personnel and collaboration notes tied to the record, and in how several songs move with a propulsive, almost club-aware momentum despite retaining industrial harshness.

# Takeaway

Pugnello does not smooth Gilla Band's edges. Instead it redirects those edges, angling their noiserock toward the dancefloor so the music can move in tighter, more rhythmic ways while remaining confrontational. For listeners who want abrasive intensity with a stronger pulse, this album will register as a deliberate, sometimes punishing experiment in marrying noise and beat.