• Premiere: John Blek – The Blackwater

    January 3, 2019 - By 

    Cork singer-songwriter John Blek is a master at weaving gossamer tales stemming as much from his own headspace as the lineage of various transatlantic folk traditions. Set for release on February 1, Blek’s fourth studio album, Thistle & Thorn, is set to underscore that repute tenfold. Recorded between Clonakilty and Louisville, Kentucky at the start of last year, the album is a largely collaborative, with Brian Casey, Davie Ryan, Joan Shelley and guitarist Nathan Salsburg among the artists who have lent their own touch to the release. Lead single ‘The Blackwater’ is a delicate and carefully-crated sample of what to expect. Brimming with pathos,…

  • Premiere: Oranges – The Way You Look

    December 20, 2018 - By 

    Holding out throughout Oranges have held on until now to reveal the first single from their debut album, Hey Zeus, set to come out next year through arguably Ireland’s most consistently stellar independent label, Sligo’s Art For Blind. Recalling the Fall’s abrasive, minimalist approach to the rock’n’roll palette, ‘The Way You Look’ was one of 11 tracks captured in 6 hours with Stephen Quinn in a room on North Frederick Lane, Dublin in 2017 – and it sounds it, in the most immediate, alchemical fashion. Oranges comprise three musicians who’ve been involved in Ireland’s underground scene for years: G. Duffy on vocals & guitars, M.T. Durnin on bass, synth & vocals, and E. Kelly on drums. Stream ‘The Way You Look’…

  • Premiere: Anto and the Echoes – Hollywood Baby

    December 13, 2018 - By 

    Belfast-based Fermanagh six-piece Anto and the Echoes are a band that have long prided themselves on their live show. It’s something that shines through and then some in the video for their new single, ‘Hollywood Baby’. Running parallel with the track’s rock-pop bombast (good luck finding a catchier chorus this side of Christmas) Declan Ó Grianna’s video – which features the band and some of their fans in the thick of it at the National Club on Queen Street in Belfast – puts cutting loose firmly centre-stage. Have a first look below. Photo by Rebecca Dougan

  • Premiere: Cal Folger Day – Apples + Reprise

    December 11, 2018 - By 

    Including ‘Homez-a-Place‘ and ‘Song From a Party‘, Dublin-based New Yorker Cal Folger Day has released a steady stream of sonically mottled and consistently compelling EPs and singles over the years. Her latest project is The Woods and Grandma, a verbatim pop-about Lady Gregory, which was recorded live in Dublin at Ailfionn by Christopher Barry and mixed/mastered in LA by Hans Zimmer engineer Forest Christenson. Set for broadcast on RTÉ Lyric FM on Sunday (December 16) between 6-7pm, the show – which scooped the Little Gem award at the 2017 Dublin Fringe Festival – will go on a two-week East Coast US tour with…

  • Video Premiere: Squarehead – Always On

    December 6, 2018 - By 

    Strange, desperate times call for great, defiant music. Fighting their corner, and sounding the best they have ever sounded, is the re-emergent Squarehead. Comprising Roy Duffy, Ruan Van Vliet and Ian McFarlane, the Dublin indie-rock heroes are back after a lengthy, self-proclaimed “mental-health break” (always a good shout, busy artists) with a brand new album in the can. Featuring sometime fourth member, Ruadhan O’Meara (No Spill Blood/Magic Pockets) on keyboards and synth duties, lead single, the sublime ‘Always On’ sees “the boys now men with crippling responsibilities and a feeling of bewilderment at the world around them.” It’s quintessential Squarehead and a latecomer for one of the Irish singles…

  • Premiere: A Bad Cavalier – On My Side

    December 6, 2018 - By 

    It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Belfast’s A Bad Cavalier. The side-project of the Niall Kennedy – who has been busy once again this year zig-zagging across the world in And So I Watch You From Afar – went off the radar in mid 2016. Now, Kennedy is back with one beast of a  new single – the irresistible, pop-leaning, Weezer-conjuring alt-indie anthem, ‘On My Side’. Have an exclusive first listen to the single, and keep up to speed with ABC’s second wind via a quick Q+A with Kennedy, below. Tell us more about the writing of ‘On…

  • Premiere: Foolish Mortal – Girl Talk

    November 30, 2018 - By 

    Just when we couldn’t conceive of Cork-based musician Laurie Shaw being any more prolific, he’s only went and started a new side-project, Foolish Mortal. And boy are we glad. Though it’s rare that we copy and paste big, wordy press releases, it gives us no shortage of pleasure to share the following wonderful spiel, along with a very first listen to the new project’s equal parts fuzzed-out and earhole-burrowing lead single, ‘Girl Talk’. The self-titled Foolish Mortal debut is out via Sunshine Cult records on December 12. “This album goes a little deeper than the white hot fuzz you can hear. The…

  • Premiere: Trick Mist – Abroad In The Yard

    October 18, 2018 - By 

    We’re pleased to present a first peek at the video for ‘Abroad in the Yard’ by Dundalk songwriter, electronic musician and multi-instrumentalist Gavin Murray AKA Trick Mist. The follow-up to ‘Two Doors Down’ – a stellar acapella effort released back in August – the single is a self-proclaimed song about letting go of cynicism, comprising samples Murray picked up while in India. Featuring archive footage of simpler times, when kicking a ball with the lads in the sun was responsibility enough, Graham Patterson’s video for the release makes for an inspired accompaniment. Murray said of the single: “Abroad in the yard…

  • Premiere: The Mad Dalton – Spirit of Rocky

    October 8, 2018 - By 

    Belfast-based alt-folk singer-songwriter Peter Sumadh AKA The Mad Dalton has unveiled the video for his new single, ‘Spirit of Rocky’. Taken from Dalton’s full-length debut album, Open Season, the single – one of Sumadh’s strongest to date – now comes accompanied with Elspeth Vischer-directed video, with camera work by Ayrton McGurgan. Trigger warning: may contain an oversized, sax-wielding bunny. The Mad Dalton play Belfast’s 39 Gordon Street on Thursday, October 11th.

  • Premiere: Galants – Follow

    September 20, 2018 - By 

    Of the countless Irish acts we’ve featured over the years, Dublin’s Galants remain one of the most assured. Striking a midpoint between swirling indie rock and blissed-out shoegaze worship, the David Kennedy-fronted quartet re-emerged back in June with ‘In Vain‘. Now, the band with another track from their forthcoming second EP – and one of their most emphatic efforts to date – ‘Follow’. Successfully capturing the band’s aim to meld the power pop of Hüsker Dü with the fuzzy miasma of Swervedriver and Catherine Wheel, the single “reflects on the psyche of the crowd and pressure to use the decisions of others as a…