From Dublin
Recommended if you like Lankum, the Mary Wallopers, the Pogues
Up next Debut EP It’s a Hell of an Age out now, playing festivals this summer and touring the UK in autumn
Madra Salach means “dirty dog” in Irish, which feels about right for a group of lads bringing a feral, snarling energy to the country’s latest folk revival. Their sound builds ably on some of the architects of that resurgence – the eerie shruti box droning and carefully layered instrumentation of Lankum, the shimmering wails of Lisa O’Neill. Add a hint of Liam Gallagher to the mix – frontman Paul Banks’s voice has an astonishing force and clarity, and he affects a tempestuous, attack-and-withdraw relationship with the microphone – and you’ve got a very exciting package indeed.
January’s debut EP It’s a Hell of an Age demonstrates an understanding of that great asset shared between traditional Irish music, house, techno, and drum’n’bass: the long and quiet ascent which suddenly becomes very steep and loud and then careers off a cliff and takes a listener’s inhibitions with it. Their covers of canonical Irish songs Spancil Hill and Murphy Can Never Go Home, as well as being impressive in their own right, serve to highlight just how evergreen original tracks such as Blue & Gold and The Man Who Seeks Pleasure already feel – new flows seamlessly into the old and back again.
As-yet-unreleased songs on their live setlist suggest the imminent arrival of some punkish antagonism and pace to temper the mournful balladry more present on the EP. It makes for a great evolution of a venerable genre, an unexpected and beguiling alloy of purity, poison and potency. Killian Faith-Kelly
This week’s best new tracks
Yu Su – Cul de Sac
The Chinese musician releases her beautiful new album, Foundry, today, which walks a desire line through techno, ambient, downtempo and shoegaze. This track pulses like a lightship in fog. BBT
Loathe – Revenant (ft Nowhere2run)
Ether-splinteringly loud metalcore from the returning Liverpudlians, assisted by ex-members of Code Orange: the time signature changes evoke the feeling of being jostled in a circle pit. BBT
Hekt – Forever (ft Smerz)
The Danish producer brings out an unusually sentimental side in his acerbic countrywomen, who contemplate eternity with a lover to puckish trance as Hekt gradually turns the thumbscrews. LS
Jura – You Make a Fire, You Make a Camp
Another Copenhagen murderers’ row. Jura splices the voices of ML Buch, Clarissa Connelly, Ydegirl and Helene Norup Due into this fragmented beauty: a little Talk Talk, a little Peter Gabriel. LS
Citizen – Highs and Lows
Brawny yet poppy midwest emo with a rhythm section that flexes on the balls of its Vans-clad feet, as frontman Mat Kerekes howls his way towards some kind of emotional clarity. BBT
Ceebo – Parable of a Skinnyman
His 2025 Blair Babies LP showed he is one of the UK’s smartest, most charismatic MCs, though it was a little overlooked. Ceebo now confronts that baffling state of affairs, trumpeting his greatness while wryly calling out the industry. BBT
Kalia Vandever – Hubbard Road
There’s a rain-on-window stillness to the Brooklyn-based trombonist’s debut for acclaimed jazz label International Anthem, their ruminative, searching notes paired with steady, melancholic piano. LS
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