After a highly revered, deservedly so, debut EP, Madra Salach have gone foraging in the dereliction of industrialism for their next offering, ‘Ribbon Factory’ out on Island Records.
It’s a difficult, if not impossible proposition – most of us can only ponder it in abstraction – what comes after a near perfect representation or widely appreciated opening invitation? Is that initial success a burden or liberation? Rather than it being merely questioned, as it has been here, Madra Salach have acted, they have created. They have taken their own sound and developed it, moved onwards. Frontman Paul Banks said of the single, “Ribbon Factory is a song we’ve been particularly excited to share. It feels like a stepping stone into more lively and punky arrangements… It’s a uniquely Irish song and is wrought with anger and despair.”
The sonic spectre of Taylorism haunts the song, echoes of the Fordist factory line in the pulsing, constant rhythm. A conveyor-belt guitar mirrors with the ‘spinning hearts and spinning wheels.’ The song bouncing onwards, building into a crescendo that is crushing, suffocating under its own weight, resonating with the narrative that, “This place is caving in on top of me.” The vocals of Paul Banks, it has been said, but perhaps there’s no other way to fully encapsulate and describe them than as, generational. Generational not just by means of its magnitude within its own generation, but more to the fact that generations, histories and ghosts, tradition and the future, emerge out its vibrations. Tones that are beautifully matched in the instrumental relationship that similarly compliments the notion of the traditional and the contemporary.
‘Ribbon Factory’, in this interpretation, is both a historical tale and a cautionary prophecy. The story of a loss of labour, familial relations strained under the weight of that loss, that isolation of precarity and the want to provide sustenance and shelter; care comes an unobtainable dream. These events have happened in the past, now in a time of automation, economic and political decisions have further increased unemployment, job security further weakening, manufacturing abandoned for the creation of data centres, and our collective power diminished by artificial (un-)intelligence – how are we meant to find respite, to build communities and not just houses but homes? One solution, heed these lyrics, learn from the past to protect the present and in turn, create the future.
Madra Salach now embark on a sold out tour, if you were fortunate enough to get a ticket – enjoy the show – if not, do not make the mistake next time of not getting one when you can, for this is an act you will talk about seeing for years to come.
Photo by Emily Lipson
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