Post Description

Folk.

Irish folk debut full of unsettling dark magic. Featuring grisly traditional tales, striking vocals, two members of Lankum and shades of PJ Harvey, this is a compelling record from Claddagh’s first signing for nearly two decades

The first signing in 18 years to the recently revived Irish traditional label Claddagh Records, ØXN are a band that named themselves after castrated draft animals – “sometimes worshipped, sometimes doomed for domestication,” they say. ØXN don’t trip around in folk’s gentler pastures. They comprise singer/keyboardist/guitarist Katie Kim, drummer Eleanor Myler of experimental rock band Percolator, and two members of the Mercury-nominated Lankum: Radie Peat, her voice as raw and jagged as a glistening oyster shell, and their drone-loving producer, John “Spud” Murphy.

This 45-minute, six-track debut LP begins with the traditional Cruel Mother, about a woman killing her newborns after becoming pregnant by a married man. After a long stretch of Peat’s voice a cappella, as in some of Lankum’s most powerful tracks, the mood shifts elsewhere: minor-key guitar arpeggios recalling the post-punk days of the Cure, and drums slowly building towards raucous workouts. As Peat returns to the refrain “all alone and lonely”, this setting has a fascinating effect, making the listener think of today’s women suffering oppression, alongside others long gone.

Peat also leads the first single Love Henry, which builds to a fuzzy clamour of madness, and Maija Sofia’s contemporary ballad, The Wife of Michael Cleary, about an Irishman who burned his wife to death in 1895, claiming she was a changeling. Kim’s vocals offer the songs very different but no less striking qualities: shades of White Chalk-era PJ Harvey on a piano-led version of The Trees They Do Grow High, Emiliana Torrini on the folky original The Feast, and full-blown goth queen dynamics on a 13-minute rout through Scott Walker’s Farmer in the City against burbling synthesisers and noise rock distortion. It’s a fittingly terrifying finale to a debut full of unsettling dark magic.

Tracks:
01 - Cruel Mother
02 - The Trees They Do Grow High
03 - Love Henry
04 - The Feast
05 - The Wife Of Michael Cleary
06 - Farmer In The City

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJYJSFy9B4A