• EP Premiere: Elaine Malone – Land

    Ahead of high-profile performances at Electric Picnic & Quiet Lights Festival, the debut EP that Limerick-born, Cork-based singer-songwriter Elaine Malone has been drip-feeding elements of throughout the year is finally here. Vivid stories manage to sidestep the usual potholes of romantic imagery, as Malone strings together a narrative as well as one can across four tracks. Pop moment ‘You’ warbles its way into existence, glaring directly into the once-beating heart of first love, with its honesty cushioned by psychedelic, oneiric arrangements, going onto explore similar, loose threads of humanity. We made some grand statements some months back about about her last single ‘No Blood’, which “musically recalls some of Tim Buckley’s airy jazz…

  • Richard Thompson w/ David Keenan @ Empire Music Hall, Belfast

    There’s been a recurring narrative in most critical discussion around Richard Thompson over the years, that he exists as this undiscovered national treasure. In terms of the comparable reverence commanded by former peers like Nick Drake & John Martyn, that might be true – it’s not a trendy sell, not quite fitting perfectly into folk or rock pigeonholes in a business that operates most efficiently under binary conditions. Couple that with themes that veer wildly between mordant meditations on humanity, and congenial, quintessentially British kitchen sink themes without the ‘benefit’ of A) dying young, or B) self-mythologising as a romantically-inclined…

  • Premiere: Mob Wife – Warm Water

    In the vein of past noise rock/post-hardcore outfit PigsAsPeople, and following the closure of Chris Leckey’s emo-hued dark alt. country project Via:Barvikha, he returns to the idea of the power trio. Today, we introduce you to Mob Wife, a new project that carries the heft of the former without losing the subtlety of the latter. The band’s caliber isn’t under question, with one of Belfast’s busiest drummers in Gascan Ruckus‘ Mark McDaid and producer & Ghost Office/Pale Lanterns‘ Carl Small on bass. ‘Warm Water’ is characteristic Leckey – blackly comic in its nihilism, the song tackles the 9-5 office grind that Dolly loved so well – stale coffee…

  • FairPlé Set To Hold Two Day Festival of Music & Ideas

    The first of its kind in Irish traditional music, grassroots coalition of musicians FairPlé holds its first festival of music & ideas over Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th September was founded to address gender balance in Irish traditional and folk music, and has been expanding and rolling out an increasing number of important events across the island. A series of panel discussions are set to take place at Liberty Hall on September 8 to address the issue of sexual harassment in the arts and Irish music, with a focus on the self-employed status of musicians. Participants will explore the rights and responsibilities of…

  • Video Premiere: Bokotono – You’re Looking A Little Rough Around the Edges

    Did you catch Electric Dreams last year? It was an uneven, but effective rendering Philip K. Dick’s warped simulacrum of reality. Know what’s not uneven? The new video for Bokotono‘s latest single, ‘You’re Looking a Little Rough Around the Edges’, which we’re premiering here today. Formed in West Ireland in 2017, Bokotono are a trio informed by the frantic, but composition-conscious heavy post-hardcore of the likes of Botch, Daughters & Fall of Troy, as well as peers like ASIWYFA, Alpha Male Tea Party & Gallops, with whom they’ve shared stages. As chance would have it, their Venn diagram has a not-insignificant crossover with one of our longstanding favourite Irish music collectives, the…

  • Apartment [Eleven] – Apartment & Sunday Times

    Dublin electronic label Apartment Records is set to put out its eleventh release on August 13th. A compilation EP, its four tracks are contributions from the ranks of revered Cork-based party-planners, Sunday Times. The tracklisting is as follows: A1: TR One – Afrodiscobeatdown A2: Colm K – Hey B1: Colm K – Rays B2: Static. – Fallen Sky Sunday Times is a monthly all-day party on the cusp of celebrating its ninth birthday. Comprised of DJs Dean Feeney (sometime member of TR One alongside Eddie Reynolds), Colm K (All City / R2 / Bastard Jazz / NTS), John Hennessy (Static.) and Barry Walsh, their parties have become not only a local institute but…

  • Video Premiere: Post-Punk Podge & The Technohippies – Home Is Where The Heart Bleeds

    If you’ve been on the festival circuit this summer, you might have noticed a couple of masked, sometimes shirtless dad-bod satirists spitting fire in a nearby tent. Mangling and dragging traditional instrumentation all the way into the 21st century, Post-Punk Podge & The Technohippies are the willing, furious voice for a certain voiceless subsection of Irish people right now. Challenging Jobsbridge disillusionment, corruption at the highest levels, and the media’s compliance with that, their latest single, ‘Home Is Where The Heart Bleeds’ returns to another social issue held very dear to the act – homelessness. Oh, and the music? A heady blend of trip-hop, infused with the band’s trademark Irish Tourist…

  • Watch: Fears – Blood

    From her immersive live shows to recent single ‘h_always‘, Constance Keane, AKA Fears, has grown to become one of Ireland’s foremost creators of ambitious, subtle pop. Her latest in a recent string of audio-visual collaborations revisits her stark, somnambulist 2016 single ‘Blood‘, which has now too met its warped match with the help of director Aodh. ‘Blood’ stars Mark Loughran as father and IFTA-nominated young actor Dafhyd Flynn from award-winning Irish 2017 film Michael Inside as son. Thanks in no small part to the to contrasting camera work from Matthew Rogan & lo-fi footage by Cloda Farrelly, the video is eye-wateringly evocative in its portrayal of the complexities…

  • Sea Pinks – Rockpool Blue

    Belfast’s foremost purveyors of jangle-pop, Sea Pinks, have announced their latest album, Rockpool Blue, out on September 28. The 28 minute album is their seventh LP since their 2010 inception. Recorded in four days over a six month period by engineer Ben McAuley at Start Together Studios, Belfast. Sonically blissed-out and dripping – moreso than any record before – it thematically tackles the pressure of adult responsibilities against the internal imposter syndrome that comes with it. Following bassist Steven Henry’s departure, frontman & guitarist Neil Brogan has taken on bass duties, with Davey Agnew on drums. Stream first track ‘Watermelon Sugar (Alcohol)’ below: Rockpool Blue…

  • Festival Mixtape: Arcadian Field

    One of the most scenic, intimate music festivals in Ireland returns for its third year over the weekend of August 4 & 5, Arcadian Field. Taking place at Bellurgan Park at the foot of the Cooley Mountains just outside Dundalk – its manor house woven into the festival area – it’s a celebration of all that’s culturally rich in Irish music, art, spoken word, poetry, theatre, comedy, workshops & in nature – with a Burning Man-esque fire ritual on the final night, as well as candlelit drawing room performances and nature walks. There are several new programming additions on offer this year. As well as…