Sean MacLeod—the Scarriff-born, Dublin-hardened former axe-man and founding member of the acclaimed band Cisco—is back. On December 5th, 2025, he dropped “I Know Not,” a lead single from his impending fifth solo slab, ‘That’s When the Earth Becomes a Star.’
So what’s the riff? He calls it “experimental indie pop,” but that’s selling the grit short. The genius—and the absolute rock ‘n’ roll chaos—is in the microtonal tuning. MacLeod, in a stroke of mad-scientist brilliance, started this track on a bunch of medieval LYRES. Yeah, you read that right. He tuned those ancient boxes to wild, off-kilter scales, creating a foundation that’s inherently unstable and electrifying. Then, in a move that defines DIY rock spirit, he replaced them with a battery of percussion instruments, painstakingly RETUNING each drum and rattle to match the lyres’ alien pitch. It’s lo-fi not by accident, but by philosophy—recorded at home on bare-bones gear, capturing the natural energy of the idea.
This is where the clash happens. Over this disorienting, microtonal thrum, MacLeod slathers on a chorus of pure, Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” grandeur—huge, hooky, and with 50s romanticism. It’s a battle between sweet melody and discordant, Eastern-tinged vocal textures. It shouldn’t work. But in MacLeod’s hands, it becomes controlled demolition. He’s merging his highbrow experimental interests (tracks like the wildly out-there “We Don’t See that We Don’t See”) with the undeniable punch of well-written pop.
The man himself drops the philosophical gauntlet with a quote from the song: “Is sound only just sound?” After hearing “I Know Not,” the answer is a resounding NO. Sound is a weapon, a palette, a history lesson, and a future-shock all at once. With a series of Irish gigs on the horizon to blast this material live, Sean MacLeod is staging an intervention for complacent ears. “I Know Not” is a bold, brawny, and brilliantly messed-up declaration.