• Stream: Count Vaseline – They Stood Up/Silver Drugs

    It wouldn’t an overstatement to say when Dublin’s The Mighty Stef called it a day back in May we lost one of the country’s most loved bands. But, with the dust having settled on that chapter, the band’s main man Stefan Murphy has re-emerged with ‘They Stood Up/Silver Drugs’, two tracks that will be given away to those order his forthcoming debut album as Count Vaseline. Written, performed, produced, edited and mastered by Murphy with assistance from Gerritt Hessler and Peter Furgiuele, Yo No Soy Marinero  is, according to the Count Vaseline Bandcamp page accompanying the release “a complex dream in which The Count wishes for…

  • Stream: Slomatics – Rat Chariot

    With their admirable aim of crushing everything in sight with their monumentally heavy – surprisingly bassist-less – brand of sludge-doom, Belfast trio Slomatics will release their fifth studio album, Future Echo Returns, via Black Bow Records on September 2. The latest reveal of what to expect from that (and it’s safe to say no chins are likely to be rubbed) ‘Rat Chariot’ – featuring vocals from ex-Conan bassist/vocalist Phil Coumbe – bears all the alchemical traits of their flattening, fuzzed out craft. Ear-drum batteringly brilliant stuff. David Majury from the band said, “This was one of the first songs we wrote for Future Echo Returns and in…

  • Premiere: Drown – Drown EP

    Having formed less than a year ago, Galway noise-pop outfit Drown have quickly emerged as a group you’d be foolish to ignore. Following their lo-fi post-punk debut single ‘Descent’, released earlier in the summer, the five piece now unveil their full debut EP, a feast of melancholic pop that steers resolutely toward the grittier, unpolished realms of post-punk and shoegaze. ‘Narcos’ sounds like a West of Ireland interpretation of Turn on the Bright Lights era Interpol while ‘Tao’ is a teasing, woozy goodbye to close the release, leaving the path ahead unlit and open to change. While the group’s nods to Joy Division and…

  • Hard Working Class Heroes Announce Line-up

    Right up there with the country’s leading celebrations of homegrown, independent music, Hard Working Class Heroes have announced the line-up for its 2016 outing, which takes place in several venues in Dublin from October 6-8. With close to 700 bands applying to perform this year, 100 acts were chosen independently by “top Irish and international music industry professionals.” HWCH’s Industry Convention will once more also bring international delegates and domestic music industry professionals together for a host of conferences, mentor sessions, workshops and more. Another addition to this year’s showcase is the inaugural Conor Walsh Memorial Bursary, set up in honour of…

  • Metropolis Announce Day-To-Day Breakdown

    With less than three months to its return to Dublin’s RDS, Metropolis have announced the Day-to-Day breakdown of this year’s festival. Boasting some big-hitters in the form of DJ Shadow, Grace Jones and Solomun, Crystal Shadows, BADBADNOTGOOD, Crystal Castles and Girl Band are also amongst some of the highlights from the bill thus far. With more acts are yet to be announced, here’s the current Day-to-Day breakdown. Thursday (Opening Night) DJ Shadow Plus very special guests Friday Solomun Moderat SBTRKT (DJ Set) BADBADNOTGOOD Girl Band Saturday Grace Jones Booka Shade (Movements 10) Crystal Castles The Sugarhill Gang Fatima Yamaha Fakear With Weekend 2…

  • Watch: September Girls – Catholic Guilt

    Imagine, just for one second, hopping in a time machine, zapping back to 1970s Ireland and telling someone there would one day be a 360-degree video on a thing called the internet for a song called ‘Catholic Guilt’. The distance we’ve come, man. The distance we’ve come. Made using a special 12-camera GoPro rig, the video for September Girls‘ new single was shot by the band’s director and guitarist Jessie Ward O’Sullivan in just one take. Pretty impressive. According to the band, “The video symbolises this force as over the course of the song, the band lose their autonomy as they are subjected…

  • Kate Tempest Set For Dublin Show

    Few artists come in the mould of Kate Tempest. Having started out when she was 16, the London poet, spoken word artist, rapper and playwright’s career to date has a traversed a critically-acclaimed series of plays, being awarded the Ted Hughes Prize for her theatrical spoken word piece Brand New Ancients, a Mercury-nominated debut album in Everybody Down and more. A restless, trailblazing creator, the self-proclaimed poet-rapper-playwright will play Dublin’s Whelan’s on November 26 off the back of the release of her forthcoming new album, Let Them Eat Chaos, which is released on October 7 via Fiction Records. Tickets for her Whelan’s show are on sale…

  • Stream: Colour Canyon – Neon

    Having been members of the delightful indie-pop outfit Little x’s for Eyes for several years, Michelle Considine and Harry Bookless recently began a venture down a more electronic, synth paved route with their new project Colour Canyon. Having already released the italo-disco infused ‘Home’ earlier in the year and releasing a cover of The Human League’s ‘Open Your Heart’ as part of 2015’s Record Store Gay compilation, the duo have just unveiled their third outing. ‘Neon’ is a delicate number with its smooth, smoky keys and gentle harmonies, the casio-reminiscent percussion clicking away in the back drawing the listener toward a quiet room to sway…

  • Watch: Majia Sofia – Stains

    In Novemeber of last year, Galway native and then London based musician Maija Sofia released her captivatingly stark The Sugar Sea EP, a collection of four icy, brittle folk tunes with a lo-fi crispness purveying throughout. Having since relocated to Dublin, the songwriter this week revealed the brand new video for ‘Stains’. Directed by Ciarán O’Brien, the video shows Sofia on an overcast Sandymount beach, the natural greyness of the early morning scene complimenting the lyrical and musical themes of the song which she has described as confronting “. . . the universal feelings of inadequacy and insecurity that come with being in a…

  • Stream: Hot Cops – Dumbbo

    A grinding, forlorn four-minutes wielding crescendo in fine fashion, ‘Dumbbo’ by Belfast trio Hot Cops is easily their most foreboding single to date. The follow-up to ‘Passive Passive’, the track – something of a recent live highlight for the Carl Eccles-fronted three-piece – steadily imparts backwashed thoughts and disorientated solipsism before yielding to a gusto of fuzzed-out resolve. This is a cunning, creeping effort that insists upon the repeated listen. Limited to 250 pink marble copies, ‘Dummbo’ will be released alongside ‘Auto’ via Paper Trail Records on September 2. Stream the A-side below.