Lankum - False Lankum

 

A record I've been waiting with some anticipation since 2022 became 2023 and one that more than lives up to its promise. False Lankum by Lankum a Dublin group who've been operating mostly under the surface of the pop lake previously, though this seems like the moment that they're likely to rise to the surface to greater recognition.

A fine, fine album, though one I don't care for the cover of. This is generally a key factor of my appreciation of LPs but it would be prissy of me to make a major issue of it in this case as this is surely as good a record as I'll hear all year. Which year it actually is, is sometimes somewhat difficult to define as you'll discover when you start listening to it.

Lankum, if you care to label them, are a Contemporary Folk band. That does seem an apt basic description. But they're one who consciously attempt to bypass traditional perceptions of what that label might appear to be. Their records don't conform to easy comparisons with the Seventies Folk revival for instance,  although there are links to be made. With Fairport, John Martyn or Steeleye Span and that set of names. Reference points that make just as much sense have been made down the years with Swans, Sun O))) and My Bloody Valentine.

On False Lankum you get eighty minutes, a proper immersion of medieval intensity. Rehearsed and recorded during Lockdown over an extended period of time in a 220 year old tower which was clearly ideal for their purposes.

This will unmoor you from wherever you find yourself in 2023 and set you adrift somewhere else entirely. It's an act of creativity that lays down a marker, a challenge that few others will be up to this year. Further words would be redundant. It's a rich and rare record.