USING existing source material to create new work follows a formula that has worked for Milkweed on a smaller scale.
Last year's Folklore 1979 used an academic folklore studies journal published by The Folklore Society in 1979, while 2023’s The Mound People and 2022’s Myths and Legends of Wales used similarly niche folklore-centred material as their lyrical source.
The publicity-shy Milkweed (Pic: Poppy Waring)Part of the Ulster Cycle, The Táin sees Queen Medb of Connaught and her husband Ailill raising an army to invade the Cooley Peninsula to steal the sacred stud bull Donn Cuailnge with only 17-year-old Cú Chulainn defending Ulster - the rest of the male population in the kingdom having been struck down by a mystery illness.
The jump from journals to 400-page epics proved a leap too far for the band, however. It took their singer, known only as G, a full year to translate and process just 12 pages of the book.
"It made me appreciate oral traditions in a completely different way, the intensity with which you had to engage with the work to feel like you could understand and transmit it,” she said of the experience.
Presumably keen not to spend the next three decades adapting a dozen pages a year, the band's new album covers only the initial 'pre-stories,' or 'Remscéla,' that form the first 20 pages of the book, providing the context for the Táin and giving the album its title.
Remscéla Album artwork'Album' is a generous descriptor for a work that clocks in at just over 22 minutes. Still, that's over twice as long as Folklore 1979 just which manages to eke over the 10-minute mark.
One of the longer songs, Exile of the Sons of Uisliu - its earworm melody looping and repeating - details the story of the tragic heroine Deirdre, her abduction by Conchobor and the subsequent burning of Emain Macha (Navan Fort) - all within two and a half minutes.
Milkweed is clearly more focused on quality over quantity - something they have in abundance. Even longer songs find themselves delivered in segments, broken by snatches of fiddles playing traditional jigs or by samples that seem to break apart and open up before resolving back to the main melody.
The sound bleeds in and out at points, like a radio station that has reached the edge of its signal's radius. At other times, it momentarily cuts completely, the brief silence snapping our attention back to the music.
Meanwhile, a near-permanent static washes over the dreamy arrangements. All of this seems to suggest a story being recited from beyond the present - told through the mists of time.
What is notable is the difficulty in pinning down Milkweed's style. The lo-fi drum samples evoke slacker rock and hip-hop yet feel entirely distinct from those genres.
There is the spectre of horror in the neofolk leanings of the sustained spectral droning synths, G's reverb-drenched vocals and the almost indecipherable, distorted sweeping backing vocals that twist and warp over found sounds that give the songs a sense of place. And, of course, there are the familiar folk and trad elements too.
It is difficult to identify the genre because, despite these familiar touchpoints, the record feels timeless and entirely unique - comparable only to their earlier releases.
And that is probably the record's only detracting factor. Despite its epic intentions, it doesn't quite stretch the duo too far beyond the ground they have already masterfully covered on previous releases.
Arguably, the band have refined their methods on Remscéla and learned how to stretch beyond their usual running time. It is, admittedly, a small fault in a stunning work.
The publicity-shy band are due to head out on a national tour in support of the album, beginning with a May Day celebration show at London's EartH Theatre on 29 April alongside their Broadside Hacks label-partners Shovel Dance Collective. How these ethereal tracks translate to a live setting may be the most fascinating element of the entire project.
Remscéla by Milkweed is released on Broadside Hacks Recordings on May 2, 2025
