Madra Salach – Irish for “Dirty Dog” – blend political lyrics and the spirit of punk with the sound of traditional Irish music on Ribbon Factory.

Ireland has been having a major moment in music over the past year or so; and not only with CMAT, Kneecap and Fontaines D.C.

There’s the dream pop of NewDad, rejuvenated noisemongers Gilla Band, the punk of Gurriers, the postpunk of Sprints, Cardinals and The Murder Capital.

Not to mention a few yet-to-become household names like Spider, Just Mustard, For Those I Love, Junior Brother, Florence Road, Pillow Queens and Dove Ellis.

At the same time, traditional Irish folk music has been evolving and mutating into exciting new areas with the likes of Lisa O’Neill and John Francis Flynn, Lankum and their offshoot ØXN.

Here’s another one.

Madra Salach (Irish for “Dirty Dog”) made their mark earlier in 2026 ago with their debut EP called It’s A Hell Of An Age, and here is a wonderful new song: a melancholy eulogy for the decline of traditional industry in the digital age of automation.

The sextet – Paul Banks on vocals, Adam Cullen on guitar, Jack Martin on mandolin and synth, Maxime Arnold on harmonium, Dara Duffy on drums and Jack Lawlor on bass – incorporate electronic elements to music rooted in the Irish folk tradition.

Frontman Paul Banks says of the single, “Ribbon Factory is a song we’ve been particularly excited to share. It feels like a stepping stone into more lively and punky arrangements… It’s a uniquely Irish song and is wrought with anger and despair.” 

An uncomfortable drone underpins the folky guitars that soundtrack an equally uncomfortable tale of the decline of industry, with manufacturing abandoned for the creation of data centres, and communities – and their collective power – increasingly undermined by AI.

As the song builds to a crescendo, it almost suffocates under its own weight as Banks echoes the pessimistic mood: “This place is caving in on top of me.”