Earlier this month we shared Part 1 of a short film on the making of No Fixed Abode, the debut album from Ulster trio TRÚ which is released tomorrow (28 May). The album is also one of our Featured Albums of the Month which we reviewed here.
If you’ve not yet watched part 1, then I strongly suggest you watch it first as it features the incredible Tommy Sands whose song County Down they cover on the album. If you’ve already watched it then you are in for something of a treat with Part 2 below.
Director Oisín Kearney has done an incredible job and the roadside scene where they meet Joe is just as warm and magical as the moment they met Tommy Sands. Part 2 revolves around the Irish traditional folk song Bonny Portmore which Thomas Blake touched upon in his album review to highlight the layers of ambiguity throughout the album:
Bonny Portmore, in which a favourite Irish oak is felled and its wood sold to the English, adopts an elegiac and slightly dusty tone though its shimmering guitar might have been inspired by shoegaze pioneers Galaxie 500. Lyrically, it is a great example of the ambiguities and multiple meanings that evidently inspire the group: these days the song could be seen as an ecological protest, but equally, it could be a metaphor for the continued differences between Ireland and England.
Pre-Order No Fixed Abode now via Bandcamp.
TRÚ on the Film:
It’s emotional watching back this short film we made in 2018 to document the making of our debut album, ‘No Fixed Abode’. Now in 2021, it feels like peering into another world. The pleasant joy of physical closeness between friends on screen highlights the current lack of it in reality. Since the end of 2019, Dónal, Michael and myself have been in the same room as each other exactly four times, and yet somehow we’ve managed to release two EPs, a handful of singles, a podcast series, and are now set to release our debut album on 28th May.
We are a different band from the one we were in 2018, when we started the album. Our home has changed too. Northern Ireland, and our shared identity within it has been through yet another transformation. The songs remain the same, but the context around them shifts. Like anchors out at sea. From Gaelic Waulking songs and Scots lullabies to vengeful Japanese spirits and other mysterious characters, we draw our inspiration from centuries of folklore in Ireland, Britain and beyond. These are old stories told with a contemporary voice.
Order No Fixed Abode: https://truband3.bandcamp.com/album/no-fixed-abode-2