One of the most anticipated debut albums in recent times. It’s simply stunning.
Dublin six-piece Madra Salach release their debut album “Gorta”, via Island Records. Named after the Irish word for “hunger”, “Gorta” is an album about inheritance: what we carry from the generations before us, what we leave behind, and the many forms that hunger can take.
The sleeve of the album, created by Oscar Torrans, holds all of that in a single figure: a Blemmyes, one of the akephaloi of ancient legend, the headless ones whose faces sat in their chests.
Madra Salach perform at Green Man Festival’s Round The Twist. There is a backdrop of patchwork material with triangles, suns and stars on some of the patches. Paul, the lead singer, stands in the middle of the stage wearing a checked khaki shirt buttoned up to the top with black baggy jeans. Maxime in a green t-shirt is on the mandolin and Jack Lawler in a long sleeve black shirt is on bass – they both sit on chairs to the left of Paul. Adam on guitar and Jack Martin on the mandolin both wear black t-shirt with a white graphics on the front, sit on chairs to the right of Paul. Dara at the back of the stage on drums wears a black shirt.
The album produced by Loren Humphrey in New York — whose recent credits include Geese and Cameron Winter — “Gorta” moves between moments of stark intimacy and full-band eruptions.
