Tuath (pronounced two ah) are an Irish shoegazing two-piece - enriched in anti-nationalism, and the music in which they believe to be the neutral ground between politics and music. Self-announced as the first ever Irish language noise rock band, Tuath blend the drones of noise rock with the melodic and sensual sounds of shoegaze - at least it’s melodic to me anyway.
“Viholliseni Maala” is the
English title - the actual Irish language title is “I D’tuath De Mo Cuid
Namhaid”, a beast to take in. If you haven’t recognised the title, it’s because
you’re not a fan of The Brian Jonestown Massacre; or just haven’t heard their
2012 album Aufheben. This is of course Tuath’s cover of the TBJM
original, and it’s adequately on par with the original in my opinion.
On TBJM’s version from Aufheben,
the vocals manage to get lost in the Clinic-esque production, where the drums
sound like their coming from your neighbour’s garage, and the guitars are
upstairs. Tuath took the tempo and slowed it right down, without losing the
context of the songs original rock song structure. Reverb and delay embark on
their voyage in quick strums introducing the listener to the TBJM chord
progression. The sound is matched by Tuath’s quality at replicating and taking
an original sound to their own level. The drums are slower and lively -
sounding unique on the ear. Then the vocals kick in, and it’s quite surreal
actually. Tuath clearly don’t hold the vocal power to sing freely on Capital
FM, but they do the job their music compliments.
This is of course shoegaze,
the scene which celebrated itself two decades and counting ago - Tuath are in
no way bringing a noise rock revival to Ireland, but by singing 100% in their,
THEIR language, they add a personality and character beyond the band name, and
beyond the music. The music just happens to be pretty good with raw sounding
percussion and incredibly well produced guitars. There are not many flaws with
this cover, the only criticism I can actually give the track is the needless 20
second fade out which burns a hole in my ear drum. Nevertheless, a very good
cover and executed well.
-Eddie Gibson
