One Leg One Eye
At home in Ireland, Ian Lynch is a star. Nearly 25 years ago, he and his brother, Daragh, founded the band that became Lankum, an act at the fore of a contemporary Irish folk renaissance, where centuries-old songs and motifs are reinvigorated through modern ideas of experimental music. With his septum piercing, finger tattoos, and perma-glare, Lynch is an obvious center of attention. But American stars don’t really make records like 2022’s ….And Take the Black Worm With Me or 2026’s CRONE, dual opuses of folk-noise-metal from Lynch’s glorious and gnarly side-project One Leg One Eye. Just before the pandemic took root, Lynch moved in with his parents; when lockdown happened, he wandered nearby abandoned sites, singing along to a shruti box in an old factory where his father had worked. Those recordings eventually became Black Worm, a riveting five-track wonder of deep drones and grinding noise, all rippling beneath regional folk tunes. In a five-star review, The Guardian dubbed it “immersive and monumental.”
CRONE pushes it all even farther. “Many Are My Names Besides” suggests Current 93’s David Tibet stuck inside a Merzbow blender, Lynch’s sibilance split open by static and lifted by enormous bass tones. “What I Shall Follow, I Shall Hunt” pairs atavistic field recordings with arcing drones, conjuring a kind of frontier anxiety. “Neither Fell Nor Flesh” feels like an orchestra of power electronics purveyors, a droning song buried beneath crying pipes and hissing circuitry. And Lynch begins the 11-minute finale, “Save What Birds Will Bear Away in Their Claws,” with spoken imprecations before reaching triumphant and wordless shouts that feel like the score for some epic battle scene. One Leg One Eye now includes electroacoustic musician George Brennan, adding depth to these pieces, especially onstage.
