Galway based micro-independent label Rusted Rail have announced the release “Darkr Earlyr” by Cubs. The sophomore album by the left-of-field folky group has been gestating for a while but far from being a difficult second album, Darkr Earlyr emerges at a time when folk-influenced music is on the rise in Ireland again. Featuring members of A Lilac Decline, Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon, United Bible Studies, The Driftwood Manor and Loner Deluxe, the album veers from dream-folk mirages to more grounded acoustic songcraft, as the Cubs collective explore both the outer reaches of cloudy improvisation and groupthink rustic anthems. Backwoods progressions sit side-by-side with heartstring playing, as Darkr Earlyr combines fireside folk and stargazing songs.
“Embers” is the opening track on the second Cubs full-length album “Darkr Earlyr” and alongside its glowing fireside music video it sets the tone for the whole album – the movement into early winter, the changing of the seasons. The guitars on the track were recorded in a high-ceilinged sitting room in a 200-year-old house in the heart of Galway city on Ireland’s west coast, and the strings and piano were later added in England. It’s a slowly-evolving, dreamlike track that gently guides the listener deeper into this most evocative of albums.
Order Darkr Earlyr via Bandcamp https://rustedrail.bandcamp.com/album/darkr-earlyr-2