• Watch: Bad Bones – Games

    March 1, 2016 - By 

    Set to play the next installment of Psykick Dancehall – our new night with Medium presents at Dublin’s Bello Bar – Dublin producer Sal Stapleton AKA Bad Bones released her shadowy, wonderfully cloistered first gambit last month in the form of ‘Beg’. Going one better, her new single ‘Games’ is a delicious slice of darkly electronica weaving perfectly-spliced beats, bobbing bass and modulated vocals in a fine, cimmerian mesh of noise. Check out the video for ‘Games’ – also created by Stapleton – below.  

  • EP Premiere: Bouts – Unlearn

    February 29, 2016 - By 

    Self-described as a “pop-grunge noise rock band with an inherent, unashamed attachment to big pop hooks” Dublin indie rock quartet Bouts have well and truly lived up to that explication over the last few years. Having fully arrived with their stupendous debut album Nothing Good Gets Away back in 2013, today marks the release of a five-track EP that sees their craft as downright convincing as ever, in spite of two members living overseas. Recorded at various points in 2015, at no point during the process where all members present together – a fact that both underlines the studio efforts of John Murphy and Shane…

  • Stream: Extra Fox – Lunar Float

    February 26, 2016 - By 

    Having premiered his subtly euphoric single ‘Palm of Gold’ back in November (stream it here) Dublin’s Neil Adams AKA Extra Fox has returned with nigh on onomatopoeic new track, ‘Lunar Float’. A drifting, typically synth-driven effort full of mellow restraint, it induces a netherworld of loose, burrowing oblivion over three and a half minutes. Stream/download ‘Lunar Float’ via Soundcloud below.

  • Belsonic Reveal First Acts, New Location

    February 26, 2016 - By 

    Attributing it to a higher demand for tickets in recent years, it’s been announced that Belfast multi-night festival Belsonic will relocate to the Titanic Building for its 9th outing this June. Launched at Katy Daly’s last night, Foals (frontman Yannis Philippakis, pictured) Biffy Clyro and Faithless were amongst the first headliners revealed to play the festival, taking place two months prior to its usual August slow. See below for the full line-up as it stands. Tickets for Belsonic 2016 go on sale on Friday, March 4 at 9am, priced from £29.50 (and booking fee).

  • Watch: Patrick Freeman – POWER

    February 26, 2016 - By 

    Dublin based musician Patrick Freeman‘s 2015 album Cherry Blossom Fall was a terrific debut. Recorded at Big Skin HQ in Cork where Waterford natives O Emperor have been operating from for the past couple of years, there is a similar sound permeating through his music; a blend of folk and psych rock with sprinklings of surfy Beach Boys elements there to make the whole experience all quite dreamy. Not to mention vocals that were very subtly touched up with distortion or phasers to add even more intrigue to already deft lyrics that veer on the tongue-in-cheek side. Even more tongue-in-cheek still is…

  • Caribou, Cat Power and more for Castlepalooza

    February 25, 2016 - By 

    Marking its tenth anniversary, Castlepalooza will return to Charleville Castle, Tullamore in Co. Offaly from July 1 to July 3 this year. With more acts to be revealed in the coming weeks, Caribou, Jurassic 5, Cat Power, Villagers, Romare, Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Cork’s The Altered Hours are amongst the first acts announced to play the annual summer festival. See below for the first announcement in full. Tickets for Castlepalooza 2016 are priced at €134 and €115 (without camping) and go on sale this Monday.

  • Watch: Ryan Vail – Wounds

    February 24, 2016 - By 

    Dropped when we were at crazy peak deadline for the latest issue of our magazine three weeks ago, we’ve been all but waking up in cold sweats in the middle of the night, terribly shame-ridden and sunken of pallor having missed the chance to share our thoughts on ‘Wounds’ by Derry’s Ryan Vail. Set to release his long-awaited debut album, For Every Silence, this Spring, Vail’s balmy, synth-laden electronica has long ensured his rightful ranking as one of our favourite Irish acts; each release betraying a confidence and command of his craft that always hinted at something sensational in the making. Essentially confirming that fact, ‘Wounds’ is classic Vail but with…

  • First acts announced for Body & Soul

    February 24, 2016 - By 

    Easily their most eclectic first announcement to date, Body & Soul have announced the first acts set to play their return to Westmeath’s Ballinlough Castle from June 17-19. With some of the very best Irish acts accounted for in the form of EMBRZ, Rusangano Family, Talos and Forrests, the big-hitters this year (so far) are Santigold, St. Germain, Mercury Rev, Wolf Parade, Floating Points, Badbadnotgood, Junior Boys and Mark Kozelek’s Sun Kil Moon. Tier 4 & 5 tickets for Body & Soul are available to buy here.

  • Stream: My Tribe Your Tribe – Garden Song

    February 23, 2016 - By 

    Having released one of the best Irish tracks of 2015 in ‘Will To Survive‘, Kildare trio My Tribe Your Tribe have returned with the daydreaming indie-pop of ‘Garden Song’. Once again tapping into some wonderfully subtle melodic glory, it’s a curiously abstracted, typically infectious effort from the fast-rising George Mercer-fronted threesome. MTYT play the following Irish dates in February and March: February 26: Sin É, Dublin March 3: Monroes, Galway March 12: The Village Pump, Rathangan, Kildare March 13: Crane Lane Theatre, Cork ‘Garden Song’ is the first track to be taken from My Tribe Your Tribe’s forthcoming four-track debut EP, which is set for release in…

  • First Acts Revealed for Live at Leopardstown

    February 22, 2016 - By 

    Set to return from June to August this summer, the first acts for this year’s Bulmer’s Live at Leopardstown series have been revealed. With several more acts to be confirmed, Bob Geldof’s Boomtown Rats will perform on August 11, The Strypes (frontman Ross Farrelly, pictured) will play August 4 and Booka Brass Band will make an appearance on July 21. Tickets – priced at a very reasonable €18 – and are on sale now.