Dusk Moon was released in March 2023; this review was written eight months later due to many long periods of non-activity in this blog in 2023, caused by personal circumstances.
It was all of five years between In Praise of Home and Dusk Moon. During that period, RURA released a live album and a tribute album, but it’s really this here release that properly continues RURA’s story – even the cover art is something of variation on …Home‘s graphics.
In Praise of Home was itself praised as something of a masterwork – and very rightly so – I wouldn’t be surprised if the band didn’t feel some weight of expectations when beginning to work on Dusk Moon. I know I would have.
But, then again, with musicians as good as these guys and with their band sound and identity well established, there was probably little chance for things going off the rails. Dusk Moon is a solid and thoroughly enjoyable outing that makes no great changes in their RURA style or approach but sounds fresh and exciting all the same.
The opening track is of course always of critical importance, and here Journeys Home invites us in elegantly and gently – it’s a lovely melody – so we can settle into the music without any hurry. A bit like coming home from a journey, really.
The title track also avoids rushing things. Long notes hover over a busy but restrained percussion until Jack Smedley’s fiddle and Steven Blake’s pipes up the energy level, and Dusk Moon‘s engine revs up for good. “Enjoy it before you fire away”, says a Finnish proverb, and it really works here.
Those two tracks reflect the album’s overall spirit: deep, irresistible grooves and pulses intertwine with natural beauty of music; together, these elements make RURA’s music breathe in a way few artists or bands can.
My favorite here may be The Grove, a piece in a tempo faster than RURA usually go for, an exercise in how both energy and calm inner focus exist side by side. The tune is fast and comes with a barrage of notes, yet never feels rushed or forced.
As for the production, it’s faultless, bringing you the rich RURA sound in all its fullness.
Five years. And it was worth the wait.
Slàinte, guys!
FolkNotes 