Clann Zú

Rua (2003)

Adam White

"And he sat & he prayed & he prayed & he sat
& he prayed to St. Augustus, St. Brigid, Padre Pio, patron saint of all
sinners, patron saint of all fools, patron saint of every fucking dying crawling
thing beneath him, shouting out the names of the dead & forgotten. And he
cried out for Christs sake help me! For Christs sake get me out of here! God
of all sick things get me the fuck out of here!"

So ends "Words For Snow," the first song on Clann Zú's
Rua, a wonderfully original and inspired album by this Australian /
Irish band. It's just a sample of the surprising intensity this group
puts forth on their debut.

Clann Zú play an eclectic mix of styles, with a rhythm section firmly
rooted in electronica, instrumentation from Irish folk music and dark melodies
that call to mind Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Declan de Barra has an epic
voice. When brooding he sounds at an Irish version of The Screaming Trees'
Mark Lanegan, although he can move at a moment to soaring vocal highs. Russell
Fawcus' violin is captivating and a central instrument on the record.
The band's world music focus isn't too dissimilar to that of Joe
Strummer's Mescaleros, if only much darker. I've seen reviews compare
Lach Wooden's "sound manipulation" to that of DJ Shadow. While I'll leave the electronica namedropping to the qualified, I will
say that these elements blend surprisingly well with the the traditional
Irish instrumentation.

The 10 songs that make up Rua were remastered from their original release and
sound fantastic in their current form. With the volume turned up this is a record
you can completely loose yourself in. From the almost danceable "All The
People" to the gothic, string-driven "Five Thousand More"
to the Celtic-punk vocals of "Crashing to the Floor," there's
a rare intensity here. To top it all off, de Barra's impassioned vocals
are multi-lingual and jump from English to traditional Gaelic.

Clann Zú sounds like nothing I can think of, making them notoriously
hard to describe. I apologise if I've stumbled a bit, but if you ask me
this is pretty fucking brilliant.