The Line is Brian Dillon, though the party isn’t about him. Red Blood Cells & Righteousness, it quickly appears, is a rather audacious fifty-odd-minute collaborative LP with no solo tracks from Dillon and bringing over a dozen musicians together. It seems doubly so reading the verbose liner notes, which gloss over savants like David Foster Wallace, Kae Tempest and G. W. F. Hegel. That sets off disquiet in this author, for whom mention of Hegel harks back the nadir of his undergraduate degree.
Despite the sprawl of the above, the music lacks no purpose. Communion, featuring sisters Loah and Fehdah, oozes with convincing emotion and an exciting and confident breakdown. Others celebrate the diversity of the project with encouraging spontaneity – a bolt-from-the-blue rap track with MuRli and God Knows halfway comes to mind.
Hero of Coincidence, with Pillow Queens’ Sarah Corcoran, tastefully weaves between noisy swarminess and clever bursts of beauty, while Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox joins the outstanding Niamh McGoldrick in The World Told No Lies, a song exemplary of the album’s most capable moments in its studied frenzy. No surprises there, nor complaints.
It wouldn’t be fair not to add that almost all the production on the record is of a brilliant quality, with a maximalism that rarely evades attention. There are weaker moments on the record, but little feels like ‘filler’ aside from several voice-note interludes. A Hegelian Gesamtkunstwerk it is not, but there’s plenty nice about a record snapshotting the lively present moment in Irish music.
Words: Finghín Little
White Blood Cells
The Horse Gallery presents White Blood Cells, a series of immersive soundscapes by sound artist Brian Dillon (The Line) in collaboration with photographer Mark McGuinness.
The audio-visual work explores the role and effect of supply chains in today’s global world. A live performance of a sister piece to the album will take place on the opening night by a music group made up of migrants and asylum seekers.
They will perform a short set of songs from their home countries, 6pm, Thursday 25th January 2024. Admission is free, and all are welcome to attend.
More here.
The Line – Red Blood Cells & Righteousness
