• Watch: August Wells – She Was a Question

    June 14, 2016 - By 

    “One day you wake up, as the man that you are, And not as the one you thought you’d become. You stop making promises, you stop telling lies. You look right into your own eyes and start saying your goodbyes.” Few Irish singer-songwriters command with the same immediacy, pathos and poignance as August Wells‘ Ken Griffin. Of all their single releases to date – including the particularly excellent ‘Here In The Wild‘ – the band’s new single ‘She Was a Question’ aims straight from the psychic jugular, distilling Sisyphean acceptance to three minutes of sublimely woven, Bacharachian alt-pop where cold, hard reality simply has…

  • James Blake set for Dublin and Belfast

    June 14, 2016 - By 

    Having released his stellar third album, The Colour in Anything, last month, James Blake will kick off a UK and Ireland October/November tour with two Irish dates. Five years on from making his Irish debut at Whelan’s in March, 2011 (we’d love to say we were in attendance – alas) Blake will play Dublin”s Olympia on October 27 and make his Belfast debut on October 28. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am, priced €37.00/£19.50.

  • Video Premiere: Alana Henderson – Song About a Song

    June 14, 2016 - By 

    Before setting off on the very long road as cellist/backing vocalist for Hozier, Dungannon singer-songwriter Alana Henderson (one of our ones to watch last year) had staked her very own captivating claim with her debut EP, Wax & Wane. Released in early 2013, it was veritable pandora’s box of burrowing folk noir, each of the release’s four traditional-tinged chamber tales bounding forth with gallant imagination and delicate, melodic finesse. With brand new material in the pipeline, ‘Song About a Song’ – a perfectly ruminating peak from Wax & Wane that’s had an incredible 5,000,000 plays on Spotify – has been resurrected with a homespun video by David Moody that wonderfully captures the song’s essence.

  • Music City 2016 Announce First Line-up

    June 13, 2016 - By 

    Returning for its fourth consecutive year, the first line-up announcement for this year’s Music City in Derry – “the festival where everyone can play” – has been revealed. Set to take place from July 4-10,  Choice Music Prize winner SOAK, The Strypes, Girls Names (pictured), Saint Sister, The Willis Clan, Overhead The Albatross, R.S.A.G, Bitch Falcon, David Kitt, Malojian, Best Boy Grip, Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son, The Clameens, Paddy Nash & The Happy Enchiladas, Strength, Triggerman, Ruth McGinley and Gerard McChrystal will make up the bill. Taking place in various squares, neighbourhoods, shops, pubs and clubs throughout the city, more acts…

  • Premiere: The Hipshakes – Attention Spans

    June 11, 2016 - By 

    Set to headline the last ever (and downright unmissable) Retro Revival Club at Dublin’s soon-to-be-departed Sweeney’s, Manchester garage punk quartet The Hipshakes recently released their blistering, new album, Snake, via Sligo independent label par excellence, Art For Blind records (The Number Ones, September Girls, The Altered Hours, Perfect Pussy, No Ditching, etc.) An outright highlight from said release, we’re pleased to premiere the video for ‘Attention Spans’ – a breathless, Harmacy-era Sebadohesque throwdown – below.

  • Watch: Dublin Boiler Room

    June 9, 2016 - By 

    Headlined by one of the country’s most respected proponents of techno, Sunil Sharpe, the mighty Boiler Room made it’s highly-anticipated return to Dublin on Monday night with another stellar line-up of all-Irish electronic talent. As well as featuring TTA Cork favourite Elll, the night also featured live sets from hardware wizard DeFeKT, Daire Carolan & Sonel Ali. Miss out first time around? Watch all 4 hours and 38 minutes of it below.

  • Lisa Hannigan announces new album ‘At Swim’. Debuts ‘Prayer for the Dying’

    June 8, 2016 - By 

    Today saw the unveiling of the first track to be heard from Lisa Hannigan’s forthcoming third LP At Swim. The new record, produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, follows on from Hannigan’s 2011 triumph Passenger. Struggling to write material for a new album while living sporadically divided between London and Dublin and being involved in myriad other projects, At Swim began to come to life once Dessner contacted her suggesting they collaborate. The album approaches ideas of homesickness and of being adrift in a sea of isolation but just as elegantly handles themes of love in ways that only Lisa Hannigan can. ‘Prayer for the Dying’…

  • Premiere: Warriors of the Dystotheque – Just Breathe

    June 7, 2016 - By 

    The follow-up to their March EP Return To Coney, ‘Just Breathe’ is the new single from multi-national outfit Warriors of the Dystotheque, founded by Derry’s Jonny Mac. Featuring vocals from Coventry singer Bella Deanie, it’s a slick, impressively produced soundscape relaying “the state of not giving up when everyone else has let you down.” Accompanying the release are remixes from the likes of Ubblahkan, Ken Fab Re and Brothers Nylon, each further revealing the track’s textural, cinematic prowess. According to Jonny Mac, the track – which we premiere in full below – came about “in a tiring drive home to Derry from a festival…

  • Stream: Arborist – A Man of My Age

    June 7, 2016 - By 

    Fronted by Mark McCambridge, Belfast’s Arborist are masters of the subtly-wielded phrase and burrowing melody. A year on from having the one and only Kim Deal feature on their single ‘Twisted Arrow’, the band have returned with ‘A Man of My Age’, a pleasantly reflective six-minute effort brilliantly bolstered by shivering strings and a layered Americana folk ambience that rewards with repeated listens. With fading youth, familial change and growing perspective at the heart of the McCambridge’s words here, we’re treated to something rather special; a carefully considered meditation imbued with a calm sense of acceptance that seals the deal in fine fashion. Stream the single…