Dublin six-piece Madra Salach announce their debut album Gorta, set for release 15 January via Island Records. The news follows the release of their single ‘Ribbon Factory’ last Friday which serves as the first taste of the record and was described by The Guardian as “taut insistent and wracked with pain… a gothic nightmare.”
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. Rooted in Irish traditional music the album is pushed into darker, more experimental and contemporary territory.
“I usually write from personal experience,” suggests 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.”
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. The album was written collectively by all six members of the band and recorded together as a full group, capturing the chemistry and physicality that has made their live performances such a central part of their identity. Produced by Loren Humphrey in New York, whose recent credits include Westside Cowboy and Cameron Winter, Gorta moves between moments of stark intimacy and full-band eruptions.
The album arrives at the end of a remarkable year for Madra Salach. Following the release of their debut EP It’s a Hell of an Age, which reached No. 3 on the Irish Albums Chart and the Top 10 of the UK Official Independent Albums Chart, the band have rapidly established themselves as one of the most compelling live acts to emerge from Ireland delivering standout performances at The Great Escape, End of the Road, Primavera, Latitude, Roskilde, Green Man and many more.
The band are currently on a sold-out headline UK tour which includes two nights at London’s Electric Ballroom and Manchester’s New Century Hall, before moving on to sold out tours in Ireland and North America where they sold out 3 shows in New York in a week. The band have an upcoming performance on Jools Holland later this month (October 25th).
Madra Salach is Paul Banks (vocals), Adam Cullen (guitar), Jack Martin (mandolin/synth), Maxime Arnold (harmonium), Dara Duffy (drums) and Jack Lawlor (bass)
Madra Salach Live Dates
October
9 – Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich, UK — Sold-Out
10 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK — Sold-Out
11 – The Bullingdon, Oxford, UK — Sold-Out
13 – Electric Ballroom, London, UK — Sold-Out
14 – Electric Ballroom, London, UK — Sold-Out
December
3 – Les Transmusicales, Rennes, France
5 – Bank Lane, Waterford, Ireland — Sold-Out
6 – Dolans, Limerick, Ireland — Sold-Out
10 – Vicar Street Dublin, Dublin, Ireland — Sold-Out
11 – Mandela Hall, Belfast, UK — Sold-Out
12 – Leisureland, Galway, Ireland — Sold-Out
17 – Set Theatre, Kilkenny, Ireland — Sold-Out
18 – Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Ireland — Sold-Out
19 – Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Ireland — Sold-Out
2027
January
8 – Rockaway Beach, Bognor Regis, UK
June
2-6 – Primavera, Spain
26 – Slane Castle, County Meath, Ireland — (supporting Fontaines D.C.)
27 – Slane Castle, County Meath, Ireland — (supporting Fontaines D.C.)
For more information on Madra Salach please check their instagram and tiktok.