There’s a borrowed, semi-functional Akai S900 sampler somewhere in the DNA of King-Mob‘s third EP. That, an old Fender stack amp, and a process that involved recording at a farm studio in upstate New York, then pulling everything apart in apartments and practice spaces between Brooklyn and Belfast, Ireland. “Arabesque” โ out today โ doesn’t sound like something assembled in transit. It sounds like something that found its shape because of it.
King-Mob is the duo of Irish guitarist and vocalist Aodhan O’Reilly and drummer Gabe Katz, who met back in 2014 while both playing in NYC noise/surf outfit Black River Manifesto. Five years on the road up and down the East Coast, deep in the American DIY and underground circuit, gave them a particular kind of muscle memory. But “Arabesque” isn’t a live band record. Not this time.
“This big difference with this EP was that we leant into the production and mixing, as opposed to just trying to capture what the band sounded like live,” O’Reilly explains. “That was totally liberating and made room for tracks that I probably would’ve abandoned before as I would’ve been too nervous about trying to recreate them live.”
The five tracks here โ trimmed from eight mostly finished pieces โ open with the 808 boom of the title track and close with the slow-burning noise dreamscape of “Camera Obscura.”
In between, the sound borrows from noise rock, left-field hip-hop production, and what could loosely be described as avant-blues. Heavily processed drum machines and ambient loops lock in with Katz’s minimalist, heavy-hitting live drumming.
O’Reilly’s guitar work channels something between Junior Kimbrough’s droning, modal blues approach and the cinematic violence of early Swans or The Birthday Party, while his vocals sit distant but firm โ somewhere in the territory of Mark Lanegan and Oliver Ackerman of A Place To Bury Strangers.
It’s a lot of references, but the thing actually holds together. There’s a connective tissue running through the EP that O’Reilly says was intentional: “Embracing the production as an end in itself also meant we could do things like reintroduce loops and themes across different tracks, so were someone to listen to the EP from start to finish, I think they’d detect a certain coherence.”
Live tracking was handled by Jeremy Backofen (known for his work with Felice Brothers) at Kirton Farm studios in Germantown, New York. But the real reshaping happened afterward โ songs were deconstructed and rebuilt remotely, sometimes on a laptop in Belfast, away from rehearsal rooms, sometimes without a guitar nearby at all. O’Reilly describes it as taking “almost the approach of a remixer on our own tunes.”
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That distance between the recording and the arranging opened things up. “We were able to lean into other genres and approaches that we like, whereas before I was obsessed with keeping everything stripped back and raw,” he says. “Hope we found a balance where you still have the rawness of a guitar and drum setup, but now that’s only an element in a more textured, colorful sound world.”
Working between two countries also reshaped King-Mob’s sense of identity. “If we have an identity as a live band it’s definitely still Brooklyn and the East Coast USA DIY scene,” O’Reilly says, “but spending more time in Ireland and Europe working on the production aspects has also opened the sound up to more diverse influences.” The plan going forward is to build a touring network across Europe while continuing to grow their US presence โ “become a transatlantic band,” as he puts it.
As for the electronics and machines woven through “Arabesque,” O’Reilly has a practical take: “I think the secret of using machines and electronics in general is making limitations for yourself and sticking to them. Otherwise you spend too much time looking at a computer screen or learning new toys, and it very quickly distracts from making and finishing songs.”
The stuff is demanding, mind-bending in places, the kind of listen that works your brain like a gym session rather than letting you coast. The title track pulls you into something disorienting right away. “Camera Obscura” doesn’t let go easy either. It’s adventurous, well-produced, and carries a certain mystic weight without ever becoming self-indulgent or boring. Fans of Death Grips, Lightning Bolt, or Link Wray’s unhinged surf spirit will find familiar instincts here โ just reassembled into something harder to pin down.
Live, these tracks have already taken on their own separate identities, often fairly distinct from the recorded versions. O’Reilly sees that as a feature, not a bug.
Stream “Arabesque” now. Follow King-Mob on Instagram.
