Lankum

The Irish quartet Lankum take their name from the ballad “False Lankum” by folksinger John Reilly Jr., a title they later used for their formidable fourth album. While rooted in traditional Irish music and folk instrumentation, the Dublin group infuses their sound with an experimental, almost punk energy, drawing on drone music, psychedelia and four-part harmonies.

After releasing several albums in the 2000s and early 2010s under the name Lynched, the Irish band signed to Rough Trade and released “Between The Earth & Sky” (2017), their first record as Lankum. The excellent critical reception helped the follow-up, “The Livelong Day” (2019), achieve wider success and win that year's RTÉ Choice Prize.

Returning in 2023 with “False Lankum”, the Dublin folksters continued to blend traditional music with original material with disruptive intensity, a darker edge more in line with punk and the avant-garde. “False Lankum” is a challenge the Irish group throws down against a musical tradition that is often embalmed and self-referential: shoegaze, drone-music and post-rock are exploratory languages that free folk's roots from a buried, chauvinistic identity. The fourth Lankum album reopens old wounds to tell new ones: the sea is not just a border within which to hide away but also an opportunity to escape the horror of war and poverty; the droning hum that stirs the Irish band's music is the strangled scream of emigrants, of people overwhelmed by violence and lies.

Following the release, Lankum also put out a live album, “Live In Dublin”.

The Dublin band's music is as irreverent as the punk-folk of The Pogues, yet it is also modern and avant-garde, blending Irish dance, drone music, minimalism and hints of kraut-rock. Lankum deserve credit for an uncommon boldness and inflexibility, which feed their ambitions without betraying the essence of a band rooted in folk tradition. The Irish group's cultural identity is grounded in folk music; their songs are tales of earthly life, of people locked in constant struggle with life's hardships, but above all of the sea, a natural element that becomes a symbol of essential, necessary feelings — death, love and freedom — a place where fear and hope travel in sync, often muddying the waters.