ninehertz

I pulled together my first draft of this review after a thrilling first listen on release, but write this final version now having had chance to see them live at the Saturday of Supersonic festival, and I’m even more invigorated by this new band to me. Somehow the context has changed too, having seen it performed in the flesh, enriching it further.

Rún have crafted something truly unique and magical here. Seen as a series of songs, the change ups can be quite challenging, an eclectic array of styles, tempos and volume. But sitting back, taking your time with it and repeat plays reveal the artistry involved.

This is Irish folk through an arsenal of mediums. The first track alone, Paidir Poball (Pupil) begins as folk with delicate vocals, turning mechanical on the slow turn, darkening electronic drones joined by ritual chants. What started bright and hopeful has become overcast, a static charge of lightning-potential threatening overhead, an absorbing potion of ethereal drone.

From there this odyssey of an album goes first to gothic trip-hop and then into noise, some of which sound positively amphibian, others industrial. There are neo-noir orations and back-alley field noises, occasional deliciously darkened guitars, dipping their toes into pools of doom through a denser tone. The vocals range from ethereal to mantric, at times adjoining the latter to cosmic whirlpools to lose yourself in.

As it closes with its longest track Caoineadh – folk from a spiritual plane, magical, even in its chaotic volume increase and crash and burn ending – it is hard to take in everything that has occurred. Repeat plays will reveal further its truly individual excellence, but even on first acquaintance you know this is something special.