  We study the equilibrium and near-equilibrium properties of a holographic
five-dimensional model consisting of Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field
with a non-trivial potential. The dual four-dimensional gauge theory is not
conformal and, at zero temperature, exhibits a renormalisation group flow
between two different fixed points. We quantify the deviations from
conformality both in terms of thermodynamic observables and in terms of the
bulk viscosity of the theory. The ratio of bulk over shear viscosity violates
Buchel's bound. We study relaxation of small-amplitude, homogeneous
perturbations by computing the quasi-normal modes of the system at zero spatial
momentum. In this approximation we identify two different relaxation channels.
At high temperatures, the different pressures first become approximately equal
to one another, and subsequently this average pressure evolves towards the
equilibrium value dictated by the equation of state. At low temperatures, the
average pressure first evolves towards the equilibrium pressure, and only later
the different pressures become approximately equal to one another.
