• Watch: Liza Flume – Sheets (Elaine Mai Remix)

    March 28, 2017 - By 

    A thrilling triumvirate if ever there was one. Galway based electronic producer Elaine Mai has returned with a simply marvellous remix of Liza Flume‘s 2015 track ‘Sheets’. Ahead of the release of her new EP The Colour of the Night later in the year, Mai’s glitching, symphonic remix of ‘Sheets’ gives a fresh, spacious interpretation on an already powerfully emotive cut from Liza Flume, an artistic force to be reckoned with in her own right who bases herself back and forth between Dublin and her native Sydney. As if that wasn’t enough, the track is paired with a video from the mighty Bob Gallagher whose recent work…

  • Video Premiere: Maija Sofia – Persephone

    March 27, 2017 - By 

    Released last month, we said ‘Persephone’ by Dublin-based Galway artist Maija Sofia was a track that “married a wonderfully cloistered atmosphere with an intimate, lo-fi air”. A month on, Sofia has returned with an evocative, self-directed visual accompaniment. Inspired by vampire mythology and 70s horror cinema, the video was show on a “freezing” morning and edited by Irish filmmaker and blogger Ciarán O’Brien. Have a first look below.

  • Video Premiere: Citizen Nobody – Born Again Primitive

    March 27, 2017 - By 

    Set to release their self-titled debut album via Belfast imprint Ram Alley on April 28, Citizen Nobody are a band that “stand against the dominant culture of corporate fascism and subservience to the psychopathic political, economic and religious systems and their self-serving leaders that have come to dominate the lives of all the creatures on this planet in such a destructive way that has rendered people with a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness.” Drawing influence from influences as diverse as Van Morrison to NEU!, Bartok to Rev. Gary Davis and from Son House to transcendentalist philosophy, the trio’s new single…

  • Stream: Fionn Regan – Cormorant Bird

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    Last month, Fionn Regan returned in style with ‘The Meetings of the Waters’, the title track from his forthcoming fifth studio album. Today he releases it’s equally beguiling follow-up in the form of ‘Cormorant Bird’. A swooning slice of masterfully-produced chamber-pop in the vein of Department of Eagles, the single suggests something especially special in the waiting for the full-length. The Meetings of the Waters is out on April 14 through his own imprint 常に愛TSUNENI AI/Abbey Records.

  • Watch: Myles Manley – Pasta Solo

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    Inimitable English-born, Sligo-raiser, Dublin-based Myles Manley has just revealed the video for ‘Pasta Solo’, the first-rate B-side to his latest single. Filmed by artist Salvatore Fullam, and with a loose narrative thread based on a portrait of Manley, he’s leaning once more into the esoteric. It’s kitchen sink bedroom music, utilising – Tom Waits style – unorthodox instrumentation and deceptively intricate instrumental panache to share with us some of the sounds from a most unique of minds. The record, ‘Relax; Enjoy Yr Night Upon the Town’ is available in a limited 7″ release on midnight blue vinyl via Dublin indie imprint Little L Records.  Myles Manley officially launches…

  • Interview: Paying Tribute to The Sad and Beautiful World of Sparklehorse

    March 27, 2017 - By 

    On Saturday, April 8 we will co-host a special, two-part event at The MAC as part of Belfast Film Festival celebrating the life and music of the sadly-missed Mark Linkous AKA Sparklehorse. Following a screening of Alex Crowton and Bobby Dass’ new documentary ‘The Sad & Beautiful World of Sparklehorse’, the evening will also feature a Q+A with the filmmakers, as well as a live, one-hour performance ‘A Night of Sparklehorse’ with Tom McShane, Peter Sumadh AKA The Mad Dalton, Richard Davis AKA Heliopause, Pixie Saytar, Jake Lennox and Brian Coney. Ahead of the one-off event, we chat with the organisers and…

  • SXSW 2017 Report

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    Split between fresh-faced and full of expectation to back home and a little jet-lagged, Irish acts Robocobra Quartet, A.S. Fanning, Jealous of the Birds, Ryan Vail, Ciaran Lavery and Birds of Olympus report back from this year’s South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Chris Ryan (Robocobra Quartet) SXSW: The Land of 2000 Line-Checks I really like watching bands line-check. A line-check is like an extremely stunted sound-check. At festivals there’s literally no time other than 15 minutes before your set for you to plug in and hope everything sounds alright. Watching a band line-check is a true insight to the human condition;…

  • Spoon – Hot Thoughts

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    There is a problem with longevity. Unless you’re Bowie, you’ll run out of things to say, or at the very least interesting ways to say it. Spoon, who’ve been rolling on for over two decades, seem to have finally reached that point. It’s been a long time since Kill the Moonlight, Gimme Fiction and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga graced our shelves. Now they’re on their ninth LP and the strain shows. Hot Thoughts isn’t bad, it’s perfectly serviceable. It hits all the target a record of this ilk should. Britt Daniel’s distinctive yelp is still offset by some killer…