New exciting body of work from Cork performer Elaine Malone

There's always been something different about Elaine Malone.

Emerging on Cork’s DIY scene in the latter part of the last decade, the Limerick-born and Cork-based singer, musician, and songwriter has always occupied a space between psychedelic expanse and rock ‘n’ roll snarl; cultivating a formidable stage presence that’s stayed consistent across her own music, as well as explorations and project like Land Crabs, HEX, Soft Focus, and her own ambient/improvisatory territory in Mantua.

That same wide and eclectic body of song, influence, and collaboration has been brought to a milestone this past month with the release and launch of Malone’s debut long-player Pyrrhic, a panoramic survey of psychedelia and introspection with a rock ‘n’ roll bite.

From “Open Season”, here realised as a spacious, jazz-inflected jam and the confident shuffle of a new arrangement of live staple “My Baby’s Dead”, to the restraint and wonder of “Dark Rooms”, and the tension-and-release dynamic of leadoff single “Eat Out of Your Hand”, it’s a trip worth taking, experienced as much with the heart as with the head.

“It’s always a really lovely surprise when people pick it up, listen to it, or they come to the shows, y’know, you don’t expect that kind of response, sometimes,” Malone says over the phone, on the response to the album from critics and community, since its release earlier in the month — “an impressively eclectic listen”, says no less of an authority than Dublin’s Hot Press.

“I’m always very grateful for when people are engaged with the work. It’s been a really lovely and exciting time, just putting out this album, as we’ve been working on it for a couple of years.”

The album assembles songs that regular Leeside gig-goers have heard in different forms over the years into a cohesive, yet expansive experience from front to back.

Having lived with the tunes for as long as she has, Malone says she’s happy to have brought them to this point, and sees the long-player as a waypoint for their existence.

“I suppose with those older ones, [I wanted to take the opportunity to] finish them in a cohesive way where they’re, like, not quite perfected, but maybe just abandoned, in a good way, know what I mean? Like, I’ve had enough time with them.

“It was nice to redo ‘My Baby’s Dead’ in a different style, that’s kind of more reflective of where we are now, and I’m really glad to have the lads around me, you know, to put their stamp on everything as well.”

The lads are Malone’s band of collaborators, sometimes jokingly referred to as the Shangri-Lads.

Drummer James Christie and multi-instrumentalists Sam Clague (also assisting with arrangements and studio magic) and Ruairí Dale (“the nicest man in Cork rock”, your writer once repeatedly said in a previous life) equally put forth a fearsome, assured sonic stall on stage, and help Malone flesh out the music in the practice space and studio, as it’s come to her over the years.

“The way it works is... I can’t write drums, unfortunately.

“Jimmy has an incredible notion of space and arrangement. I think [from the lads’ perspective], they have a great outlook, because they get to kind-of oversee everything in a non-melodic way, think about structure and things.

“Ruairí is an intrinsically tasteful bass player, and Sam is just, y’know, a virtuoso. When I take a song into the lads, we just kind-of jam it out, see what way it develops, or say ‘oh, this might work better’... I think it’s a very mutual collaboration.

“I might write the songs, but they’re as important to all of it as I am.”

The final hurdles of that years-long process were cleared gradually, with Malone tapping back into Cork’s sonic undergrowth for help with recording and post-production.

Cathal MacGabhann’s trojan work with the Altered Hours has helped him refine some serious vision as a producer, and his touch on recording duties is immediately identifiable across Pyrrhic’s running time, while collaborator Sam Clague mucked in on mixing to help deliver the collective’s singular vision for Malone’s ideas and music.

“Working with Cathal is always an absolute pleasure.

“He’s a very tasteful, very resolute songwriter.

“He’s the perfect person to work with.

“He gets it, he gets what we’re looking for, and what we want, and then Sam, mixing this stuff, was sublime.

“We’ve had a really nice crew around the making of this thing, people who just have similar ideas about what we’re trying to make, which has made it a lot easier.”

The album is out now, digitally, via Dundalk indie label Pizza Pizza Records, with a 12” vinyl version on the way, pending the unfortunately now-usual delays and hoops that beset short-run and independent record pressings.

The label has been a huge support for new independent music in Ireland in recent years, helping put light on the likes of Just Mustard and Clara Treacy, and whose own Leeside connections include being the label home of two acts who found their sounds here, and call the city home, The Altered Hours and solo experimentalist Trick Mist.

Malone discusses working with the label — and the space they’ve granted her to deliver on her own terms.

“The spirit of independent record labels is very important, in that, like, it is supportive, and you’re allowed, entirely, your own creative freedom.

“There’s no pressure to do anything differently than you would normally, and you get facilitated to express, really.

“They’ve always been really good, like, everything that Pizza Pizza have put out over the last few years I’ve really, really admired, and without a shadow of a doubt, once we were asked, it was like ‘of course, like, it makes perfect sense’.”

Elaine Malone: The cover of her debut album, 'Pyrrhic', photographed by veteran Cork snapper Celeste Burdon.

A 12” vinyl edition is also available to order from Malone’s Bandcamp, due for the post at the end of October.

Elaine Malone and collaborators are set to play as showcasing artists at Ireland Music Week in Dublin, on Thursday, October 5, at 9.15pm, in the Grand Social Loft — presented by Culture Ireland, the Arts Council and First Music Contact.