Cork native and former Microdisney and Fatima Mansions frontman Cathal Coughlan returned to active duty after almost a decade’s absence in 2021 with a critically acclaimed new solo album ’Song Of Co-Aklan’. Now a year later, Coughlan is offering an intriguing addendum to that album in the form of a digital-only EP via Dimple Discs, which contains three unreleased songs from the ‘Co-Aklan’ sessions plus a remix of “Crow Mother”, one of the album’s highlights. Kevin Sharkey’s remix transforms a theatrical fable into a 6-minute acid house-tinged odyssey, of which Coughlan notes…
“Crow Mother II is the point where all the recent provocations come home to roost. We’ve insulted one another’s beliefs and holy ground, sold each other lethal products as though they were merchantable, and added poison to the leisure drinks. So it’s time. Kevin Sharkey’s Unrepentant Acid mix seeks to create a Third Summer Of Love, wherein the wise veterans of London’s acid house scene are shipped in time-lapse pods to view the end of the Anthropocene era, post-conflict, where the plankton inherit the nutrition and the real estate of Earth – but the individual plankters also, it seems, enjoy a good individual rave-up amid the murk of the deepening ocean. Can the plankton’s own Stone Roses second album bust-up be far off?”
The video for “Crow Mother II” (Kevin Sharkey Unrepentant Acid Mix) was directed by Andy Golding (The Wolfhounds, Dragon Welding), who was also responsible for Coughlan’s February 2021 video release “Owl In The Parlour”
“The lyrics are uniformly excellent…Coughlan reminds you again and again just how good he is” ~ The Irish Times
“Each slice of spiky post-punk/pop is every bit as intriguing as his witty and acerbic lyrics” ~ Sunday Times
“Coughlan’s sixth solo album is a real gem” ~ Hot Press
“Definitively affirms Coughlan’s place amid Ireland’s poetic pantheon” ~ MOJO (4 stars)
“Song Of Co-Aklan is a more than welcome return from a puckish master of social observation and surreal manifesto” ~ The Wire
“…shows off a rich, Scott Walker-ish voice that’s aging superbly…a welcome return” ~ Uncut
Tracklisting:
- Laszlo Plantagenet Loves The Sun
- Tangerine
- Crow Mother II (Kevin Sharkey Unrepentant Acid Mix)
- Victory MindCloud
EP available to download on Bandcamp at: https://cathalc.bandcamp.com/album/e-p-of-co-aklan
