• Carlow Arts Festival Announces 2017 Programme

    April 26, 2017 - By 

    Celebrating its 38th year, the programme for this year’s Carlow Arts Festival – which runs from June 7 to 13 – has been unveiled. Set to take place across the festival’s HQ at Carlow College, St. Patrick’s and VISUAL, as well as local landmarks, this year’s bill is full of various free events, a host of live music, visual art and, as ever, family friendly events. Amongst some of the highlights this year include recent RTE Choice Music Prize winners Rusangano Family, R.S.A.G., Stomptown Brass, as well as a world festival first: a big screen performance of Philip Glass and…

  • Stream: Skymas – BubbleDub

    April 26, 2017 - By 

    Back in September last year, Belfast duo Martin Corrigan (ex-Alloy Mental) and Nick Todd AKA Skymas released one of our Irish tracks of 2016 in the form of ‘No Easy Way Out‘. Seven months on, the pair are back with its follow-up, the equally virulent electro-rock blast of ‘BubbleDub’. Featuring none other than Stephen Leacock (Franklyn/ex-General Fiasco) on guitar, it’s a typically propulsive – and masterfully bombastic – banger from the pair, released a day ahead of supporting K-X-P at Belfast’s Voodoo as part of this year’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. Propelled by Corrigan’s chorus refrain of “solution in destruction” the…

  • Premiere: Elma – Drive

    April 26, 2017 - By 

    One of the hardest working – and masterfully diverse – musicians in the island of Ireland, Derry multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and songwriter Eoin O’Callaghan makes music both under the moniker Best Boy Grip and as part of Wake America. Adding yet another string to his sonic bow, new project Elma explores more more open-ended, soundscape-based terrain. A seven-month process in which O’Callaghan exclusively used analog gear – a Revox 77B tape machine, cello, bass and a bunch of synths – the project is predominantly instrumental in nature, but will also feature snippets of conversation with a Peruvian hermit by the name of Dolama. According to…

  • Video Premiere: Beach – Bram Toker

    April 26, 2017 - By 

    Released earlier this month, we said ‘Bram Toker’ by Dublin neo-psychedelic five-piece Beach was an effort confirming their arrival as a band to be “considered alongside fellow Irish sonic diviners The Altered Hours and Elastic Sleep“. A few short weeks later, the single – one of our favourite by Irish act this year – comes bearing a visual accompaniment, directed and animated by Ross Ryder. Have a first look at that below. Beach will play a Knockanstockan Presents show in Whelan’s on May 12, as well as their first headline in London on May 18 at the Islington.

  • The Avalanches Set For Dublin and Belfast

    April 26, 2017 - By 

    Australian electronic legends The Avalanches have announced their long awaited return to Ireland. The group – who released their critically-acclaimed second album, Wildflower, last year – will play Belfast’s Limelight 1 on Thursday, June 15 and Dublin’s Academy on June 16. Tickets are priced at £21.50 and €26.90 respectively (inc. booking fee).

  • Watch: Vernon Jane – Fuck Me

    April 27, 2017 - By 

    Holy moly! Don’t you dare sit down, gang, this is important. Dublin Jazz-Punk (or, psyjance as they like to call it) collective Vernon Jane are here to kick the living daylights out you and your loved ones and teach you a lesson while they’re at it. Following on from the 2016 EP The Inner Workings of a Damaged Nobody, the group have returned with a vengeance with new single ‘Fuck Me’. The abrasive, merciless track finds the band channelling influences from the brutally hard-rockin’ camps and those of frenzied jazz. Band leader and vocalist Emily Jane bellows lyrics that demand attention and which grapple…

  • Stream: Elaine Mai – The Colour of the Night

    April 25, 2017 - By 

    Elaine Mai will release her new EP The Colour of the Night on 19 May. Following ‘Enniscrone’ from October 2016 and a recent remix of Liza Flumes ‘Sheets’, the Dublin based producer and vocalist has now revealed the title track of the forthcoming release. Much in the same vein as ‘Enniscrone’, which also features on the EP, ‘The Colour of the Night’ is an atmospheric electronic number with a solid backbone carrying it to its peak. Mai’s ability to capture sincere emotion in simple, warm melodies is on full display here with the words of loss and of nostalgia being carried by chiming synths…

  • Stream: Participant – Next Year

    April 25, 2017 - By 

    Taken from his Sampler EP, Dublin’s Stephen Tiernan AKA Participant has unveiled ‘Next Year’. The EP, which was released exclusively on cassette in March, features five singles on Side A and a collection of samples and field recordings on Side B. A delicate slice of atmospheric folk, Tiernan’s acoustic guitar and tempered vocals are gradually joined by additional textures, keys and faint strings, giving the track a neo-classical edge with hints of Ólafur Arnalds creeping through. With candid lyrics confronting themes of complacency, self-worth and commitment, Tiernan said of the track: “‘Next Year’ is a song that for me deals with the idea of…

  • Watch: Daithí (feat. Sinead White) – Aeroplane

    April 24, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his Holiday Home EP this Friday 28 April, Daithí has revealed another shimmering pop-leaning cut. Welcoming back regular collaborator Sinead White for a typically excellent guest vocal, ‘Aeroplane’ is a more melodic cut than the EP’s propulsive title track from last month. Despite its dancefloor focus, the track maintains its organic atmosphere through breezy keys, recorded natural samples and White’s voice, reminiscent at points of some of SBTRKT‘s collaborations. The song is brought to life by the accompanying video which features footage shot in Daithí’s hometown of Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare from the 90s. Speaking of the track…

  • Video Premiere: Sullivan & Gold – Guatemala

    April 24, 2017 - By 

    Once a duo, Sullivan & Gold is the music-making moniker of Derry’s Benjamin Robinson, formerly of the Good Fight. Aptly positing his music as “the perfect accompaniment to falling in or out of love”, his output to date has straddled wistfulness and deliverance in fine fashion, something that’s more than apparent on new single ‘Guatemala’. A heart-rending ballad taken from a new full-length set for release in late 2017, the track “tells the tale of a long distance relationship between a young couple; a newly qualified primary school teacher teaching in the north coast of Northern Ireland and a young Northern Irish…