Dublin band Lankum have announced their new album False Lankum, announced new Irish dates and released new track Go Dig My Grave.
Released on Rough Trade Records on 24 March, False Lankum follows Ian Lynch, Daragh Lynch, Radie Peat and Cormac MacDiarmada's 2019 breakthrough album The Livelong Day, which won the RTE Choice Music Prize and was Number 8 on NPR Music’s Best Albums of the Year list.
The new album features two original tracks, Netta Perseus and The Turn, both penned by the group’s Daragh Lynch.
Go Dig My Grave was discovered by Radie, who learned the version on the album from the singing of Jean Ritchie, who recorded it in 1963 on the album Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City.
"Our interpretation of the traditional song Go Dig My Grave is one that centres around the emotion of grief - all-consuming, unbearable and absolute" says Lankum.
"A visceral physical reaction to something that the body and mind are almost incapable of processing. The second part of the song is inspired by the Irish tradition of keening (from the Irish caoineadh) - a traditional form of lament for the deceased.
"Regarded by some as opening up 'perilous channels of communication with the dead’, the practice came under severe censure from the catholic church in Ireland from the 17th century on."
Speaking about False Lankum, the band says, "We wanted to create more contrast on the record so the light parts would be almost spiritual and the dark parts would be incredibly dark, even horror-inducing."
False Lankum tracklisting: Go Dig My Grave, Clear Away In the Morning, Fugue I, Master Crowley’s, Newcastle, Fugue II, Netta Perseus, The New York Trader, Lord Abore and Mary Flynn, Fugue III, On a Monday Morning, The Turn.
Lankum play 19 May - Mandela Hall, Belfast, 20 May - Cork Opera House, Cork, 30 and 31 May - Vicar Street, Dublin, and 4 August - All Together Now Festival, Co Waterford.
