Recorded with Liam Mulvaney at Bow Lane Studio, the forthcoming self-titled EP by Dublin alt-rock band Oh Joy faithfully throws back whilst keeping a fixed eye on the present-day, fuzzed-out ruminations. Counting the likes of Pixies, Elliott Smith and DIIV amongst their main influences, there’s an authenticity to the trio’s intent-drenched throwdowns, not least on the EP’s lead single ‘Habits & Recreations’, which we’re pleased to premiere here. Oh Joy will be released at the end of the month.
“Barbara, Barbara, we face a shining future”; these were some of the final words spoken by Underworld frontman Karl Hyde’s father to his anguished wife on his deathbed. It’s a simple, yet beautiful phrase brimming with melancholic hope. Underworld’s decision use this as the title of their ninth studio LP, their first in sixth years, makes a great deal of sense as it not only works as a tribute to Hyde’s father but also as the rosetta stone to understanding the whole disc. Every song on the record has this genuine sense of foreboding and menace, manifested in the form…
Released back in February, Joy Void by Dutch/Irish artist Hazing is a debut EP that demands your our attention from the get go. Evoking the likes of Wild Nothing and Ariel Pink over its four tracks, there is a somnambulist glow woven throughout the release, conjuring late-night city traipses, head down, hands in pockets, driven forth by wayward thoughts of belonging and connection in a sleeping urban jungle.Two months after it dropped, Dublin producer Aidan Wall AKA Soil Creep has re-imagined lead single ‘Nervous Signals’ in superb fashion. Excavating beats and bleeps from the track’s placid fabric, it re-frames the track in such a…
If their last few shows are anything to go by – not least their thrilling performance at our Tuesday Throwdown at Lavery’s in last month – Derry’s Wood Burning Savages are a band coursing forth with a huge amount of momentum right now. Recorded by Rocky O’Reilly at Belfast’s Start Together Studio, their new single, ‘We Love You’, is breakneck two and a half minutes that sees frontman Paul Connolly at the peak of his steadfast and ever-increasingly silver-tongued powers. Speaking of the release, Connolly said, “It’s not a love song. It’s a song about youthful dreams and hope being…
On Lust For Youth’s breakthrough LPs, 2012’s Growing Seeds and 2013’s Perfect View, the band made music that sounded like a normal dance record left to warp and decay for a few years inside a nuclear reactor for a few years. There were beats and melodies, but they were pushed deep beneath fog and murk and cloaked in nausea and sick tension, with only a few ghostly hints at the music as we normally hear it appearing from time to time. It was concrete cold and frontman/ mastermind Hannes Norrvide’s ability to make something that sounded so alien to the…
Brame and Hamo are a duo originally from Sligo who, over the course of the past year, following a relocation to Berlin have been going from strength to strength with their blend of house and hip-hop which is resolutely loyal to the genres’ links to Jazz and soul. With their seamless meshing of these styles the pair impressed labels such as Dirt Crew and Detroit Swindle’s Heist Recordings and have since put out EPs on both labels, garnering them plenty of play in label sharer’s DJ sets and an ever growing respect both in their new base and back home.…
A four note, staccato bass opening can’t help but throw you head first into Pixies territory. That niche was so intricately carved that even gesturing towards its opens up the floodgates to a whole host of connotations and comparisons that the majority of bands who do so buckle under. But Dead Stars opt to do so on the inaugural track of their second LP, Bright Colors, and you can see why. It’s a fitting place to begin, the group’s sound is entirely indebted to Frank Black as well as Evan Dando, Rivers Cuomo and Fountains of Wayne. There are shifting…
Reminiscent in different ways to El Ten Eleven, Axis Of and the elated instrumentalism of And So I Watch You From Afar, ‘Matty Rusko’ by Galway four-piece Race The Flux is the kind of prog and latter-day post-rock-leaning track we’re more than happy to wrap our ears around time and time again. Going at least one step further than some of their peers in said realm, the single is a masterstroke in sidetracking exhausted tropes of the genre, blossoming from purposeful instrumentalism to a single-minded, fist-clenched conclusion. Going one further: it’s right up there with the best Irish tracks released this year. Race The Flux play Dublin’s…
It’s safe to say 17-year-old Dubliner Sam Ojo is a hip-hop artist with confidence and flow beyond years. Produced by Ignorvnce, his new single ‘So Pro’ is, in spite of being under two minutes in length, a heady, intent-drenched throwdown that doubles as something of a statement of intent from the hugely-promising wordsmith. The latest release as part of the new-fangled Word Up Collective – also featuring the likes of Damola, Katie Laffan, Anti-One and Stay Gold – watch the video for the track, directed by Steven BeatSmith, below.
“Quite a touching song in its sheer bare-boned simplicity and sound. Great track – potentially brilliant artist.” So your writer scribed three years ago this June in reference to an early version of ‘There’s a Wolf’ by Co. Armagh’s Conchúr White AKA Silences. Having came on many leaps and bounds since that tentative first foray in 2013, White and his band have released a reworking of the track, revealing deft harmonies, wonderfully subtle pockets of sound and fleshed-out, full-band instrumentation that more than justifies the revamp. Silences’ forthcoming EP Luna will be released on April 15 will be released on April 15.