Irish post-punk outfit Basht. have released their long-awaited debut album Poor Advice via LAB Records, marking a significant milestone for the four-piece as they embark on a run of in-store performances, festival appearances and headline shows across the UK and Ireland.
Produced by Ali Chant, whose credits include Dry Cleaning, Perfume Genius and PJ Harvey, the ten-track record confronts the institutions, power structures and social expectations that shape people’s lives. Combining looming atmospherics, intoxicating vocals and forceful guitar work, Poor Advice tackles subjects ranging from the influence of the Catholic Church and political authority to conflict, media distrust and the fragility of personal relationships.
Basht.
Rather than delivering its message through unrelenting aggression, Basht. balance restraint with moments of explosive intensity. Their songwriting allows tension to build before unleashing sprawling instrumental passages, giving the album’s weighty subject matter room to resonate.
The record’s central themes are rooted in Ireland’s complex relationship with religious and political authority. Across its ten tracks, Poor Advice examines how the Catholic Church and the state historically reinforced one another, shaping private lives through guilt, silence and obedience. It then extends that scrutiny into the present, exploring the influence of corporate power, military institutions and the wider machinery surrounding armed conflict.
Vocalist and guitarist Jack Leavey describes the album as a study of the relationship between those who hold power and the people affected by their decisions. “Poor Advice is a bruising concept album that traces the tangled wires between power and those crushed under it.
“Through 10 tracks, it maps the old dance between church and state in Ireland, where pulpits and governments traded sermons for policy and shaped a generation with guilt, silence, and obedience.
“It then pulls that thread into the present, following how moral authority has been outsourced to boardrooms and barracks, with the military industrial complex running like a grim metronome: conflict brewed, weapons sold, grief managed, contracts renewed.
“Poor Advice is the title because it’s all the counsel handed down from above: keep your head down, say your prayers, trust the deal.”
The album’s title track brings these ideas into focus, examining the pressure to conform and the often contradictory guidance people receive from themselves and those around them. Its accompanying video offers a visual counterpart to the record’s darker themes.
Leavey describes Poor Advice as a song about the struggle to reconcile good intentions with everyday temptation and overindulgence, while continuing to search for a way forward. “The final track off the album deals with the struggles of living in a world of temptation and overindulgence, the poor advice we give ourselves and hear from others. Wanting to be better every morning, but falling short. It offers a glimmer of hope that reassures us that there is a light to get us through darker times.”
The release follows a run of singles that has helped introduce the band’s uncompromising sound to a wider audience. Kids Vs Guns, Terror TV, Keira Knightley and Perfume have all received radio airplay, offering different perspectives on the record’s combination of confrontational subject matter, melodic hooks and muscular instrumentation.
While the album frequently engages with difficult social and political realities, its emotional scope extends beyond institutional criticism. Basht. also turn their attention towards the pressures that shape relationships, the uncertainty of personal choices and the ways individuals navigate a world that can feel increasingly difficult to trust.
That balance between the political and the personal is central to the band’s approach. Their music can feel patient and brooding one moment, then suddenly erupt into crashing guitars and tightly wound rhythms. The result is a debut that uses post-punk’s familiar tension and release to explore questions that reach well beyond the confines of the genre.
Formed by Jack Leavey on vocals and guitar, Lughaidh Armstrong-Mayock on lead guitar, Ryan McClelland on drums and Louis Christle on bass, Basht. have steadily developed their sound through a series of singles and live performances. Poor Advice brings those elements together into a cohesive statement, establishing the band as a group prepared to confront uncomfortable subjects rather than offer easy answers.
The album’s release coincides with an extensive schedule of in-store appearances and live dates, including performances at independent record shops, festival appearances and a headline run through the UK and Ireland. The band will also appear at NBHD Festival in Manchester and Mutations Festival in Brighton, before continuing their headline shows later in October.
With Poor Advice, Basht. deliver a debut that connects the personal with the political, tracing the consequences of authority, inherited beliefs and the advice passed down through generations. Its underlying message is not simply one of anger, but of recognising the structures that shape people’s lives and questioning whether the guidance offered by those in power deserves to be followed.
Upcoming UK & Ireland Live Dates:
OCTOBER
9th – London, Rough Trade East
10th – Brighton, Resident Records
11th – Bristol, Rough Trade
12th – Nottingham, Rough Trade
13th – Liverpool, Jacaranda Baltic
14th – Bury, Wax & Beans
15th – Glasgow, ASSAI
16th – Edinburgh, ASSAI
17th – Manchester, NBHD Festival
18th – Birmingham, Castle & Falcon (with Jacaranda Records)
19th – Leeds, Headrow House (with Crash Records)
20th – Sunderland, Independent
21st – Sheffield, Foundry (with Bear Tree)
23rd – Brighton, Mutations Festival
27th – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
28th – Glasgow, Art School
29th – Manchester, Gorilla
30th – London, KOKO
NOVEMBER
7th – Dublin, Button Factory
11th – Belfast, Empire
Yee Loi Keep Punk-Rock Energy Running In The Family At B.R.A.T.
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