• Premiere: Robbie Strickland – Suffocated

    November 26, 2020 - By 

    Back in January, Dublin musician Robbie Stickland made a strong impression with ‘Lizard‘. Taken from his debut album, Warm Jeans in the Morning, it was a compelling return from an artist who is something of a cult figure in Dublin’s indie scene. Though brief, new single ‘Suffocated’ ups the ante. Clocking in at just over two minutes, it’s a masterfully lax DIY effort that – alongside material that will feature on a forthcoming EP – was recorded in a city centre apartment with a half-functioning four-track tape machine. According to Strickland, the single aims to capture “the experience that many sensitive and…

  • LP Premiere + Q+A: Kilian O’Kelly – Luzhny’s Layer

    November 6, 2020 - By 

    It’s been a busy couple of years for Dublin-based guitarist, Kilian O’Kelly. In between joining Girl Band for a few dates on their 2019 tour, releasing a critically acclaimed debut record Fad with his band Silverbacks this past summer and setting up an independent label, Central Tones, he somehow managed to find time to write and record an exceptionally dynamic solo album entitled Luzhny’s Layer. The instrumentally-led body of work contains multitudes across nineteen immersive arrangements. Within, O’Kelly conveys a myriad of moods via floating guitar riffs, unnerving string accompaniments and utterly magical piano lines all masterfully performed. It ventures…

  • Premiere: JaJa Studios – The Lost Sound Vol. 1

    November 5, 2020 - By 

    Having provided Dublin musicians and various other creatives with a vital hub over the last seven years, Stoneybatter DIY music and art space JaJa Studios recently lost its home on Cowper Street to a developer. Dusting themselves down, the collective have wasted no time in looking for a new HQ – and ways to make that a reality. Cue The Lost Sound Vol. 1, a new, 22-track cassette tape compiled to raise proceeds for a new space. A self-proclaimed (and entirely accurate) slice of the Irish music underground from some scene stalwarts, it’s a wonderfully eclectic release, featuring Flowers at Night, Declan…

  • Premiere: Martin Rössel & The Dum Dum Boys – Pablo Picasso

    November 4, 2020 - By 

    This Friday, November 6th, Belfast’s independent imprint par excellence Touch Sensitive release Hearts of Champions, the second volume of London-born producer, DJ and archivist Gareth Goddard aka Cherrystones‘ acclaimed Critical Mass series. In Goddard’s own words, the comp is “not a rare-for-rare-sake appendix of bands designed to showcase exclusivity and superiority”. Instead, we’re treated to an excavation of eighteen pure-gems from the post-punk and new wave era, featuring the likes of Konec, Loco Lotus, Siglo XX, Neon and more. Ahead of the compilation’s release via gatefold double vinyl, CD and digital on Friday, we’re pleased to present a first listen to Martin Rössel & The Dum…

  • Premiere: Andrew McGibbon – We’ve Got Horns

    November 4, 2020 - By 

    As one-half of acclaimed Northern Irish garage blues duo The Bonnevilles, Andrew McGibbon has spent the last few years underscoring his status as one of the island’s most captivating frontmen. After zig-zagging across Europe once again with The Bonnevilles back in 2018, McGibbon found himself burnt out and staring into a creative abyss with a self-described “PTSD – post touring stress disorder”. It kickstarted a period of creative metamorphosis that has resulted in Northern Gothic, a wonderfully idiosyncratic debut solo release that reveals the full breadth of his songwriting voice. “I’d get quite blue on the run up to leaving for…

  • Premiere: A.S. Fanning – All Time

    October 29, 2020 - By 

    We’re pleased to give a first listen to ‘All Time’, the lushly-textured new single from Berlin-based Irish singer-songwriter A.S. Fanning. A Nick Cave-ian gothic mini-fable, Fanning weaves personal neurosis through time and memory. Navigating the maelstrom’s dream logic, its subtly psychedelic layering and glistening production push toward briefly lucid moments of internal respite. Of the track, Fanning tells us: “‘All Time’ is a song about love and acceptance. Or maybe love and mercy, to borrow a line from Brian Wilson. I wrote it very quickly one night, it just sort of fell out fully formed, as sometimes happens. I was thinking about Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and the idea of being…

  • Video Premiere: Ferals – Separate

    October 23, 2020 - By 

    As with myriad other bands this year, Northern Irish alt-rock trio Ferals have had to navigate the pangs pitfalls of coronavirus over the last few months. Without question, the sudden reality of severance is right up there with the toughest of all. Today, the self-proclaimed “loudest band in Belfast” have re-emerged to take square aim at what being apart – both in the age of social distancing, but also on a much more personal level – feels like. Accompanied by a video splicing recent news coverage with original footage, new single ‘Separate’ is trouncing and earworming in equal measure. Lyrically,…

  • Premiere: Ten Past Seven – Turf War

    October 15, 2020 - By 

    Since 2002, Kerry trio Ten Past Seven have peddled a singular brand of instrumentalism, striking an equal parts nuanced and face-melting midpoint between alternative, math rock and self-proclaimed “bog prog”. On November 27th, the band – comprising Rory O’Brien on guitar, Matt Shallow on bass and drummer Ger Mangan – will release their second full-length LP, Long Live the Bogwalrus, via pre-eminent Irish indie imprint Art for Blind Records. Recorded by two-thirds of TTA favourites Percolator, John “Spud” Murphy and Ian Chestnutt, at Guerilla Studios in Dublin, the album features guest vocals by Landless, fiddle by Lankum’s Cormac MacDiarmada and various other notable guest…

  • Premiere: nimf – Space

    October 1, 2020 - By 

    Kaleidoscopic Wicklow sugar-pop performance artist nimf has returned with new single ‘Space’. Its production is as synapse-firing it is personal, a bricolage that effortlessly conjures the 3D candied earfloss dreamscapes nimf speaks of when discussing its themes of imagination, and “the beautiful worlds within our own minds”, which open up “endless possibilities when overwhelmed by the day-to-day” on when left to our own devices. Certainly, the young singer-songwriter’s singles thus far are not just accomplished as elements of a bigger body of pop artistry, but of an already fully-realised sound world. Listen to ‘Space’: nimf · Space

  • Premiere: IN-IS feat. Haula – Broken Ones (Ryan Vail Remix)

    September 17, 2020 - By 

    Last year’s NI Music Prize winner Ryan Vail teamed up with BAFTA-nominated film & TV composer Sheridan Tongue, AKA IN-IS to bring us a remix of the latter’s ‘Broken Ones feat. Haula’. Another characteristically panoramic blend of balmy atmospheric washes and lush synth arpeggios, Vail continues to deliver in abundance as a collaborator, remixing with the same verve and creativity as can be found across his body of solo compositional work. Of the remix, Sheridan told us: “Ryan Vail is a producer I have admired for many years. Coming from the world of film and television soundtracks, I find his ability to create an expansiveness and…