Album Review: Huartan, Huartan

Excitement had been building about Huartan’s debut album for some time. The Belfast-based tradtronica group already boast a formidable following thanks to their utterly unique live performances (think: the visual immersion of Fever Ray, mixed with pagan Irish iconography and a laser-focused political bent).

Their word-of-mouth reputation has often gone before the music. This, of course, can be dangerous for emerging artists. But the very good news is that Huartan’s debut album delivers on their promise.

The 10 tracks – which are drawn from traditional Irish songs – are exquisitely produced and throb with menace, possibility and energy. All of this is suggested immediately on the album’s short intro, before it breaks into ‘Cailleach’, whose synths and percussive elements give it a trad-meets-trip-hop feel.

The album just seems to build and build from there. There’s a smouldering darkness to ‘Cad é Sin’ – their most recent single – and a blistering version of ‘Bean Udaí Thall', the end of which explodes into a glorious wall of sound and melody.

Next up, ‘NTRIBAL’ – featuring Beoga’s Sean Seán Óg Graham – shows just how far they’re willing to break the strictures of ‘Irish trad’ to make their sound new. This is a moving song, in both senses – it strikes an emotional chord as it skips from ambient and thumping dance to earnest strings and flighty woodwind.

You can tell they’ve allowed the live shows to shape the music on this album; there’s a conviction to this album that could only come from experience. They know when to stretch the songs out and when to rein them in. The spoken word section on the six-minute ‘Dorn San Aer’ could’ve sounded like hammy proselytising if done wrong; instead, it sounds like the most urgent thing you’ve ever listened to.

Similarly, ‘Dúlamán’ is kept tight, with an industrial sound and earworm refrain that seems destined to be mixed and sampled by others.

9/10

You can pre-order Huartan on vinyl here.