• Stream: Robocobra Quartet – ‘Knotweed/Witch Hunt’

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    We were going to post this yesterday but seeing as we featured the band in question in our latest live session – which you can and most certainly should watch here – this evening seems a little more opportune. A rather ingenuous hybrid of spoken-world punk, jazz and hip-hop, Belfast four-piece Robocobra Quartet have just let loose into the world their latest Double A-side: ‘Knotweed/Witch Hunt’. The former – featuring probably second most brilliantly abrupt intro in jazz-centric history – demonstrates the band’s more bold leanings, melting  shifting, shuddering rhythms, expertly atonal bass shapes and braying sax squeals with drummer/vocalist Chris…

  • Download: Sunburnt Jets – Stare and Pretend/Out of Luck

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    When he’s not busy making music and playing shows as part of Dublin quartet Bouts, Colin Boylan is concocting his own wonderfully earworming brand of lo-fi indie rock as Sunburnt Jets. Having spent “18 months working on them here and there”, he has just released a very impressive double A-side release: ‘Stare and Pretend’/’Out of Luck’. With self-proclaimed nods to shoegaze and dream-pop, the tracks were recorded and mixed in Boylan’s Stoneybatter home-studio, with mastering by Stephen Quinn (Patrick Kelleher, Subplots). According to Boylan, “some of the posters on the studio wall influencing the sounds included Dinosaur Jr, Warpaint and Casiotone…

  • Gigs of the Week: Tim Hecker, Conan, Mos Def, Boxcutter, Callum Stewart

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    Pigs of the bleak? Nope. Figs of the streak? Not a chance. Swigs of the geek? That doesn’t even make sense. What you were looking for – searching for, all these years – was this week’s installment of the ever-ingenuously titled Gigs of the Week. Inclined towards leaving the house and watching people perform music over the next few days? Read on and right on. Tim Hecker, Ellll @ Button Factory, Dublin – Thursday, November 20 Supported by Cork electronic noise artist Ellll (read about her in the November issue of our physical magazine here), Canadian ambient artist Tim Hecker (pictured)…

  • Track Record: Patrick Kelleher

    November 24, 2014 - By 

    We spend an evening with Patrick Kelleher for a cup of tea to warm our cold dead hands while he rummages through his record collection and tells us why the selections he made means so much to him. Photos by Brid O’Donovan. Mulatu Astatke featuring Fekade Amde Maskal – Ethio Jazz This album was introduced to me by a friend who heard it first on the soundtrack to Broken Flowers. It’s just got this lovely catchiness, as you can tell. The same friend who introduced it to me played it quite a lot at his house. Recently for my thirtieth birthday…

  • Track Record: We Cut Corners

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    In the latest installment of Track Record, our photographer Abraham Tarrush shoots We Cut Corners at home, as they flick through their record collection, selecting some of their all-time favourite albums. Majical Cloudz – Impersonator The reductive but potent combination of synth bass and baritone make for a heady minimalist mix of weighty songs that hang around long after the needle has left the groove.   Ryan Adams – 29 Released the same year as Cold Roses and ‘Jacksonville City Nights, 29 is potentially Adams‘ most introspective and sombre album to date… and he’s had a few. Atmospherically nocturnal, at times almost bleak, it’s home…

  • Track Record: Gugai

    November 20, 2014 - By 

    Booker, promoter, DJ and all-round good guy Gugai – formally known as Eoghan MacNamara (or ‘Google’ if you’re drunk enough) is somewhat of a legend around Galway and if you’ve ever graced the Roisin Dubh venue you’ll know of his overwhelming love and support of the music scene here first hand. We’ve asked him to kindly flip through his entire record collection and select some of his favourite releases, with special guest appearances from Pope John Paul II and his dotey son Osgur. Photos by Sean McCormack. Pope John Paul II – In Ireland I think It’s really hard to choose your favourite record…

  • EP Stream: September Girls – Veneer

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    Ahead of its official release next week, September Girls are streaming their new four-track EP, Veneer. Wearing its influences very much on its proverbial sleeve, the release – conjuring the likes of Jesus and Mary Chain and The Cure – shows marked progression and experimentation with production and effects from the five-piece September Girls launch Veneer at Dublin’s Bello Bar on November 28, supported by Squarehead and Sissy. Go here to win a pair of tickets to the show. Stream Veneer via Vice right here.

  • Watch: Hozier – From Eden

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    Hands the Irish musical success story of the year, Hozier has just unveiled the video for his latest single, ‘From Eden’. Keep an eye out for Joe Laverty’s photo feature with the globetrotting Irish singer-songwriter in the December issue of our magazine and check out the new video – doubling up as something of a short film – below.

  • Inbound: His New Atlas

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    In this latest installment of Inbound – which looks at some of the more promising acts from across the country – we talk to fast-rising Armagh singer-songwriter Eoghan O’Hagan AKA His New Atlas about the power of cathartic release, his very specific approach to songwriting and his big plans for the next few months. Firstly, can you shed a bit of light on how you came to be a singer-songwriter? I started off in a metal band, oddly enough. I left this as I never felt like it was moving at a pace that fast enough for me. So I got a…

  • Luke Abbott, Somerville, Subplots @ Pepper Canister Church, Dublin

    November 20, 2014 - By 

    Arriving at the Pepper Canister church on Dublin’s Mount Street last Saturday evening one was met with seemingly incongruous signage screaming Hidden Agenda. Truly esoteric, casual bystanders might have suspected a hijacking, an unsubtle protest at the church in modern Ireland. The fact of the matter was something less overtly political, yet just as exciting. The Dublin venture whose name adorned these signs was putting on a thrilling concert in this venue, an evening of music grounded in folk that gazed ever skyward.Stepping inside, the mood was one of quiet wonder, as smoke softly drifted through air and rich, thick…