Ash Red announce debut album 'The Foreign Game'
- Richard Blowes
- Oct 15
- 2 min read
The Foreign Game is the debut album from Cork post-punk power trio Ash Red and it will see a streaming and vinyl release in November
Album: The Foreign Game
Band: Ash Red
Release date: November 14 2025
The Foreign Game is the debut LP from Cork post-punk power trio Ash Red. They continue to evolve their signature dark, bass-heavy post-punk sound with this impressive full-length outing. It captures Ash Red at a peak of creative evolution, blending jagged post-punk riffs, brooding atmospherics, and expansive sonic textures. The album takes an 'Albini' approach to production, emphasising raw, live energy while allowing dynamic variation between heavy and light moments.
The album's closer and title track typifies the band’s central approach and main themes of the album: what it means to be an outsider, exiled, isolated and lost; and the importance of being yourself.
Frontman Arthur Murray expands: “Using football as its frame, the album title draws on the history of ‘Rule 27’, which GAA used to forbid its members from playing so-called ‘foreign games’ until 1971.”
The album track listing is as follows:
First half
Take Me
Control
Hopeless
Friends?
Island's Edge
Second half
Alone Again
DB COOPER
Just Words
Enough
The Foreign Game
Since their formation in 2019 there have been several lineup changes. Now settled as a trio, Ash Red comprise frontman Arthur Murray on guitar and vocals, Tadhg O’Keeffe (bass/backing vocals) and Isaac Walsh (drums). They have carved out a devoted fanbase with their dark, bass-heavy post-punk inspired by Joy Division, The Cure, and a stark Irish sensibility all their own. They have worked with Blowtorch Records since the release of first single The Stupid Song.
With support slots for major artists such as Public Image Ltd, appearances in every major Irish city, and headline performances at The Workman’s Club (Dublin) and Voodoo (Belfast), Ash Red have become a vital part of Ireland’s underground music circuit with support from heavyweight Irish outlets such as RTE and Hot Press among many others.
The vinyl album is available to pre order here:
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