• The Co-Present Returns

    February 4, 2016 - By 

    The Co-Present on Radiomade.ie have been providing one of Irish music’s most valuable independent services, and resume their 3pm Saturday afternoon slot on February 6 with the inimitable BP Fallon and 21st century Irish national treasure, drag queen and gay rights activist Panti Bliss. It’ll no doubt be a fantastic, honest chat with the show’s perennial host, Dwayne Woods (below). As ever, the show will feature some live music, this time from cross-border atmospheric-folk-pop duo Saint Sister. The young act, featuring Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntyre, have in no time become one of the hot prospects on the island, playing with Arcade Fire’s Will Butler following a performance…

  • Interview: Steven Agnew – Punk Principles & Policies (Part 2)

    February 4, 2016 - By 

    Part 1 of our interview last week with the Green Party NI leader Steven Agnew focused on his early involvement in the local music scene and the anarchist movement around it, leading toward his eventual election and current role at Stormont. Here, we’re given a seldom-seen look into the – apologies – Kafkaesque system within which the only Stormont-elected member of a minority party has to work – overcoming contradictory policy, surrounded by homogeneous career politicians in the red-tape-encumbered uncooperative & uncommunicative system of departments that make up the Executive. It’s the devolution of power in more ways than one,…

  • Interview: Steven Agnew – Punk Principles & Policies (Part 1)

    January 26, 2016 - By 

    This two part interview gets into the bones of how and why someone who grew up in a predominantly working class Protestant background, who associated and lived primarily around those of an anarchist persuasion with a grassroots ethos, came around to getting involved with the slimiest business around: Big NI politics. We’ll follow through, in The Thick of It fashion, to the absurd complexity inherent within any political structure, and how it’s navigated by someone who actively tries to get things done outside of tribal politics – the extent of which is felt far beyond simply Green vs. Orange. Where…

  • 16 For 16: Naoise Roo

    January 18, 2016 - By 

    In the latest installment of 16 For 16 – in which we profile sixteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going to do great things this year – Stevie Lennox lauds Dublin chanteuse Naoise Roo. Photo by Pedro Giaquinto Dublin’s Naoise Roo is a rare talent who arrived seemingly fully-formed, arriving last year with her debut release in the form of the full band LP, Lilith, resulting in slots at Electric Picnic, Vantastival and Valentia Island. She’s fortunate enough to possess one of the most evocative and texturally-rich voices on the island, and skilled enough to match it with a knack…

  • Watch: Gascan Ruckus – Bitter Victories

    January 12, 2016 - By 

    The Middletown boys in Gascan Ruckus are at it again, with the video for the second, semi-titular single from their forthcoming long-awaited debut album, Narrow Defeats and Bitter Victories. Never concerned with taking themselves more seriously than is necessary, it comes complete with an Uncle Hugo-friendly countrified intro. It’s noticably more hook-driven than past efforts, but still channelling some of the contemporary anthemic post-hardcore in the vein of Dinosaur Pile-Up or Basement that they’ve been plying in recent years. The video was recorded by Belfast Yank BeeMickSee and Axis Of’s Niall Lawlor, with their latest album recorded by Ben McAuley at Start Together Studios. You can…

  • 16 For 16: Apartments

    January 12, 2016 - By 

    In the latest installment of 16 For ’16 – a feature in which we preview sixteen of our favourite Irish acts that we’re certain will do great things in 2016 – Stevie Lennox introduces Belfast duo Apartments. Photo by Liam Kielt Fast-becoming the strongest single noun pluralisation-monikered emotional hardcore band on the island, Apartments released their 6-track official debut EP, Rush, in October, following a promising 2014 demo. Their sound is rooted in the kind of math-rock-tinged American Midwestern sound that’s been gestating in Ireland for the last couple of years, channelling, loosely, American Football, Cap’n Jazz and a ferocious sense of…

  • Kurt Vile w/ Lushes @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    November 17, 2015 - By 

    As a preface-turned-thinkpiece, it’s probably important to note that I suffer from epilepsy and although I have my suspicions that this correlates with my connection to music, that hypothesis is probably, at best, pseudo-science. But then again, Neil Young – fellow epileptic – has, before even the diagnosis, been this writer’s favourite musician of all time, connecting in a way no other has before or since. Apart from, perhaps, the first time my teenage self heard Appetite For Destruction. That may seem a roundabout way of introducing a Kurt Vile review, but there’s an inescapable influence on those who channel…

  • Interview & Introduction To: Fractured

    November 20, 2015 - By 

    You may not have noticed yet, but Dublin-based filmmaker John Mulvaney is doing an invaluable service for the Irish underground scene in his short-form documentary series, Fractured. Each short film zones in on members of some of the best under-the-radar heavy and/or experimental artists in the country, piecing together a range of evocative cinematographic fragments of the musicians and their surroundings, soundtracked to candid aural insights from the respective musicians and their music. Mulvaney’s evident passion and respect for the music has continually led to a carefully crafted portrait of each artist, with every instalment accumulating to more than the…

  • Cheatahs – Mythologies

    November 9, 2015 - By 

    Mythologies is an appropriate name, with the London-formed Americo-Germanic-Canadian quartet Cheatahs once more harking back to subgenre worship of their indie rock, psych, Krautrock and, most prominently, shoegaze forefathers. Not even two years removed from the last record, things are getting more ethereal, with the emphasis on the psych and Krautrock, drastically reducing their tendency towards the more straightforward rockers. Mythologies’ level of gratification, as opposed to the instantaneity of their eponymous 2014 debut, comes in – appropriately enough – gushing waves. A lush production with a greater grasp on dynamics, it’s a record as much about textures as songs, even moreso than…

  • Watch: Neon Atlas – Get Up

    October 28, 2015 - By 

    Cork grunge-tinged alternative trio Neon Atlas have just released the video for their latest single, ‘Get Up’, following up on July’s ‘I Never Felt So Good‘. With frontman Kieran Ring’s Corganesque vocal qualities and a strong angst:anthem ratio, it’s plain to see in which era these folks’ hearts hark towards. Their knack for a hook has improved tenfold between their new album, Graffiti Reality, and their 2013 debut LP, Absolute Magnitude, given the strength of its two singles. The single is officially released on Friday, November 13 through iTunes, along with the rest of their album, which came out in July. Check it out below:…