Silk — July
Released September 4, 2025
From the UK
Shoegaze
"Silk" the successor to My Bloody Valentine
July marks the most focused and striking release yet from Silk, the new project of Michael Smyth, guitarist and songwriter for Virgins. Unlike his band work, Silk is entirely Smyth’s vision: every note, layer, and lyric is written, performed, and recorded by him. The result is a sound that embodies the essence of shoegaze — vast, immersive, and heavy with distortion, yet ethereal enough to feel like it could dissolve into air at any moment.
The single unfolds as a balance of contrasts: shimmering, choir-like guitars give way to tidal waves of fuzz, while Smyth’s vocals carry themes of subtle betrayal with both fragility and force. It’s shoegaze steeped in tradition but sharpened with a 90s alternative rock punch, thanks in part to Allan McGreevy (New Pagans), who handled the mixing and mastering at his Badlands studio.
July builds upon the foundations laid by Silk’s earlier tracks, which already caught the attention of press, blogs, and radio tastemakers. Songs like Faze and but then, yes were championed across platforms from DKFM’s Aspirin Age to WhiteLight/WhiteHeat, garnering recognition from Golden Plec, Hot Press, Nialler9, IMRO, Louder Than War Radio, and more. With July, that promise crystallizes into something bigger: a statement of intent, both expansive and deeply personal.
For Smyth, Silk is more than a project — it’s a way of carving out meaning against the backdrop of time’s relentless passing. “I constantly feel like I am rushing towards the inevitable infinite oblivion,” he explains. “To that end, it’s important that I fill the time remaining with joyous, creative acts. The sharing of ideas is an essential part of that, which brings us to Silk.”
As July arrives ahead of Silk’s first Irish tour dates, it captures the urgency of that sentiment: music made not just to exist, but to connect — to flood listeners in sound, and leave them adrift in its shimmering, beautiful weight.
© Thusblog
