The Dublin six-piece’s first full-length, produced by Loren Humphrey in New York, follows ‘Ribbon Factory’ and arrives ahead of a sold-out Irish tour and a support slot with Fontaines D.C. at Slane Castle.
The Irish drone trad rock band Madra Salach have announced their debut album, Gorta, out Friday January 15th 2027 via Island Records. It follows last week’s single ‘Ribbon Factory’.
Gorta is of course, the Irish word for hunger, and the band say the album is about inheritance: “what we carry from the generations before us, what we leave behind, and the many forms that hunger can take.”
It’s rooted in Irish traditional music, pushed into darker, more experimental and contemporary territory.
“I usually write from personal experience,” says Paul Banks, the group’s frontman and lyricist. “I try not to go too big-picture. I can tap into the emotions that way.” What he found, writing, was the private ache kept opening out onto something far older. “The ideas of longing and yearning, all the kinds of hunger, they slot into where we are as 21st century Irish people. The more I’ve thought and written about Irishness, the more I’ve seen how strange a history and a position and a culture we have.”
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The sleeve, created by Oscar Torrans, carries a Blemmyes, one of the headless akephaloi of ancient legend whose faces sat in their chests.
The album was written collectively by all six members and recorded together as a full group, aiming to capture the chemistry and physicality of their live shows. Producer Loren Humphrey, whose recent credits include Westside Cowboy and Cameron Winter, worked with them in New York, and the record moves between stark intimacy and full-band eruptions.
Gorta is out on LP, CD and cassette, with a limited edition Irish-exclusive LP variant in all Irish record stores. The Clay edition LP is being pressed exclusively in Ireland by Anthem Vinyl.
Gorta tracklist
- Hunger
- Ribbon Factory’
- Tunnel Tigers
- Searrach
- The Stolen Sheep
- Bolg
- She Talks to the Telly
- Cranes
- Circus Horse
- The Haunted Isle of Green
It lands at the end of a big year for the band. Their debut EP It’s a Hell of an Age reached number three on the Irish Albums Chart and the top 10 of the UK Official Independent Albums Chart, and they’ve played The Great Escape, End of the Road, Primavera, Latitude, Roskilde and Green Man. They’re in the middle of a sold-out UK headline tour, including two nights at London’s Electric Ballroom and a Manchester date at New Century Hall, with sold-out Irish and North American tours to follow. Their contribution to The Songs of Shane MacGowan, out November 26th and featuring Bruce Springsteen, Primal Scream and Lisa O’Neill among others, is also on the way.
We’ve been covering them since the beginning, including their December Irish headline tour and manager Erin Barker winning the first Trevor Dietz Management Bursary.
Madra Salach live dates
- Thursday December 3rd – Les Transmusicales, Rennes, France
- Saturday December 5th – Bank Lane, Waterford (sold out)
- Sunday December 6th – Dolan’s, Limerick (sold out)
- Thursday December 10th – Vicar Street, Dublin (sold out)
- Friday December 11th – Mandela Hall, Belfast (sold out)
- Saturday December 12th – Leisureland, Galway (sold out)
- Thursday December 17th – Set Theatre, Kilkenny (sold out)
- Friday December 18th – Cyprus Avenue, Cork (sold out)
- Saturday December 19th – Cyprus Avenue, Cork (sold out)
- Friday January 8th – Rockaway Beach, Bognor Regis, UK
- Wednesday June 2nd to Sunday June 6th – Primavera Sound, Barcelona
- Saturday June 26th and Sunday June 27th – Slane Castle, Co Meath, supporting Fontaines D.C.
Gorta is available to pre-order and pre-save now.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
