• EP Premiere: Warriors of the Dystotheque – Return To Coney

    March 4, 2016 - By 

    A self-proclaimed “dystopian journey deep into the heart of modern trip hop and gloomtronica” Return to Coney is the second EP from multi-national outfit Warriors of the Dystotheque. Founded by Derry’s Jonny Mac, the quartet’s craft is a darkly blend of slick, lo-fi soundscapes in the vein of Massive Attack and UNKLE, rounded off by a deft cinematic scope and solid command of layered, trip-hop leaning instrumentalism. Released via Tigre Fair today, Return to Coney is inspired by cult 70s film The Warriors and particularly one of the final moments of the film, where The Warriors return to their home turf – Coney…

  • Playlist: Choice Music Prize 2016

    March 3, 2016 - By 

    With The Gloaming proving well-deserved victors last time round, tonight’s Choice Music Prize is – as has almost always been the case with the award – an extremely tough one to call. Selected by an Irish industry judging panel, the following albums – perfectly diverse in score and vision – will all compete to walk away with the prize at Vicar Street later today. Girl Band – Holding Hands with Jamie (Rough Trade) HamsandwicH – Stories From The Surface (Route 109A Records) Gavin James – Bitter Pill (Warner Music Ireland) Jape – This Chemical Sea (Faction Records) Le Galaxie – Le Club (Universal Music…

  • The Gloaming – 2

    March 3, 2016 - By 

    We’re fast approaching the centenary of the one of the most significant events of contemporary Irish history, but we all know that with all the ceremony and pomp comes memorials for a handful of inflated personalities and footnotes for the rest. What if we dropped the politicism and the commemoration of a failed rebellion and instead focused on one of the key tenets behind the act: culture. So many of the key figures were artists, writers and poets, striving to tell the tales of the land in their native tongue and yet we’ve opted to sideline that part of the…

  • Bookmark: Frankie Gaffney

    March 2, 2016 - By 

    In this installment of Bookmark, we chat to Dublin author Frankie Gaffney about the books that have made the biggest impression on his life thus far. Photos by Pedro Giaquinto. I’ve split my list into fiction and non-fiction. Non-fiction tends to get neglected, but it influences my writing every bit as much as fiction. Non-Fiction A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson This book gently and briefly explains what’s currently known about the universe: the very basics of the cosmos, our planet, and the life that inhabits it. For some reason they don’t really teach you the broad…

  • Track Record: Anderson

    March 2, 2016 - By 

    In this installment of Track Record, we head over to the home studio of Dublin based singer songwriter Anderson, while he selects the records which have made a huge impact on his life from The Beatles to Joni Mitchell. Photos by Tara Thomas. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band This record is redolent of my childhood, it has been a sturdy vessel for so many of my earliest and happiest memories. As a musician the way I listen to records has changed and become much more analytical, listening to this record now only enhances my regard for…

  • Electric Picnic Reveal First Acts

    March 2, 2016 - By 

    With the rumours coming thick and fast over the last couple of weeks, Electric Picnic have revealed the first acts confirmed to play this year’s festival. With much more yet to be revealed, LCD Soundsystem, Lana Del Rey, New Order and The Chemical Brothers top this year’s festival. Super Furry Animals, Haim, Todd Terje, Animal Collective, Broken Social Scene, Savages are also amongst the first confirmed acts. See the full first announcement below. Weekend camping tickets for Electric Picnic 2016 are now on sale here. To enter our competition to win two weekend tickets to this year’s festival, go here.

  • Stream: Solar Bears – Gravity Calling

    March 2, 2016 - By 

    This time last month we were rather giddily raving about Solar Bears‘ ‘Wild Flowers’, a track we said seen the Dublin duo “as prismatic and sorcerous as ever”. Very much following in that vein, ‘Gravity Calling’ is the latest track to be streamed from their forthcoming third album, Advancement, which drops via Sunday Best Recordings on March 18. Inducing yet another neon-lit netherworld of lambent retro-futurism, it’s a superbly synth-driven, soundtrack-like four minutes of flawless mastery from the twosome. Solar Bears play Belfast’s Lavery’s on Friday, March 18. Pre-order Advancement here.

  • Watch: New Secret Weapon – You’re Still Losing (Live)

    March 1, 2016 - By 

    Few Irish alt-rock bands command their own sound quite as convincingly as Dublin’s New Secret Weapon. Counting The Fear, The Late Late Show and OJ Simpson as their many influences on their Facebook page, the David Griffin-fronted trio have unveiled a live version of ‘You’re Still Losing’, a riff-fuelled, multi-part ode to the interminable, Sisyphean strife of The Everyday. Evoking everything from Jeff Buckley’s more tenacious efforts to the backwashed urban doom of Enablers and Incubus’ earlier, more emphatic material. Created by Scan and recorded by Deaf Bros, watch the video below.

  • KnockanStockan 2016

    March 1, 2016 - By 

    Having expanding to three days due to demand, annual Wicklow independent music and arts festival KnockanStockan will return to Blessington Lakes across the weekend of July 22-24 for its tenth anniversary outing. Calling it a “celebration of the last 10 years of Irish music”, this year’s festival will also play host to special ‘Honorary Guests’ that won’t be identified until they take to stage. Bettine McMahon from the festival said, “We really want the element of a birthday surprise at this years festival, so our lineup is under lock and key right now, even most of the crew don’t know…