• 18 for ’18: Cherym

    January 31, 2018 - By 

    We conclude 18 for ’18, our feature showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’ve previewed each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Last up, Cherym. Photo by Mickey Rooney Though Derry-Londonderry has never experienced any dearth of first-rate punk, recent times has seen something of a renaissance on the banks of the Foyle. Set to emerge as its crowning achievement in 2018 is Cherym, a noise-pop/punk band consisting of guitarist/vocalist Hannah Richardson, bassist/vocalist Nyree Porter and drummer/vocalist, Lauren Kelly. Formed in college back in late 2016 through…

  • Ciaran Lavery – Sweet Decay

    January 30, 2018 - By 

    From inauspicious beginnings in Aghagallon, one of Northern Ireland’s most talented and celebrated songwriters, Ciaran Lavery, has announced details of third album. Launched in Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on the same day, Sweet Decay is released on April 13, following on from his 2016 NI Music Prize-winning LP, Let Bad In. Totting up well over 80 million streams on Spotify, he’s one of our most poetically-gifted singer-songwriters, not to mention one of the most wilfully eclectic. As well as scattering soul, hip-hop or R&B on top of what was once a bread & butter strain of heartfelt, earnest indie-folk & chamber-pop, his short collaborative album with electronic producer Ryan Vail won high…

  • Tuath – Youth

    January 29, 2018 - By 

    We’ve called them, among other things, the North’s foremost purveyors of hepped-up-on-goofballs psychedelia, but the Letterkenny outfit Tuath release their latest EP, Youth on February 24. Primarily recorded & produced by the band mastermind Robert Mulhern, it follows almost a year on from Things I Don’t Know. Featuring a string of steadily-released singles they’ve been fastidiously putting out over the last 6 months accompanied by videos, they’re peering out gingerly from their their darkened corner of ‘gaze-hued trip-hop for dalliances with post-punk and indie rock, without losing that claustrophobic, nihilistic sound that puts them in a category of just one on the island. Check out their previous material on Bandcamp. Watch the…

  • Stream: O Emperor – Make It Rain

    January 29, 2018 - By 

    O Emperor are back with ‘Make It Rain’, their first new music in over two years. The Cork via Waterford five-piece have “[Emerged] from a sustained period of blurblobitude” with a sound that pushes forward the krautrock, afro-disco and psych leanings of their past two releases, 2015’s Lizard EP and 2013’s Vitreous LP. And about time too. Since their 2012 debut Hither Thither, the band – which, if you didn’t know, features one of our 18 for ’18 artists Phil Christie AKA The Bonk on vocals and piano – have steered further and further away from folkier territory and into more obscure realms. It was heard in the eerie krautrock of…

  • 18 for ’18: Destriers

    January 29, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up, progressive hardcore quartet Destriers. Photo by Colum O’Dwyer As a hardcore fan, you often find yourself fighting genre jadedness. By its nature, every latest trend can seem yet another vessel that fits the sonic requirements but lacks dynamism or the genuine sense of vocal or compositional conviction that the foundations of punk are built upon.…

  • Watch: Loah – Unveiled

    January 27, 2018 - By 

    Loah has shared the video for ‘Unveiled’, taken from one of our top EPs of 2017, This Heart. Directed by Ellius Grace and choreographed by Jade O’Connor , the video stars Uchenna Chukwudinma and was filmed in London and The Sally Gap. The video seems to document a slow, determined odyssey toward freedom and space as Chukwudinma walks away from the bustling, suffocating city and into the windy majesty of nature to be welcomed by a small community’s embrace. It’s a perfect pairing with one of the most subtly affecting songs from This Heart, a stripped back affair with Loah’s voice being accompanied by the ever-wonderful Niwel Tsumbu who featured…

  • Stream: Slow Place Like Home – Shadowcat

    January 26, 2018 - By 

    Late last year, Donegal’s Keith Mannion AKA Slow Place Like Home gifted the world with one of the strongest and most uniquely inspired Irish albums of the year. Released via Galway’s Strange Brew Rekkids, When I See You… Ice Cream! offered many peaks, not least in the form of its fourth single, ‘Shadowcat’. Reworked for today’s standalone release, the track’s submerged electro weaves a spell out of Mannion’s vocals, slithering synth patterns and some sublime, flittering beats. Accompanying the single release is a remix of SPLH track ‘Falesia’ by Andrew Morrison AKA The Cyclist. Do yourself a favour and delve into both below. Slow Place Like…

  • Album Stream: Sleep – Portals

    January 26, 2018 - By 

    Sleep is the alias of Dublin-based electronic artist Shane Cusack. A producer of vast, enchanted drones and ambient soundscapes, he recently released his debut mini-album Portals via the Urban Arts Berlin label. A richly textured collection, this five-track release is specifically designed to guide you into slumber when nothing else seems able to. On his regular midnight show on Dublin Digital Radio, Cusack produces an hour long mix exclusively to cater to the first hour of the sleep cycle. On Portals, he achieves something much the same, only this time the music is his own (naturally). Inspired by the likes of Wolfgang Voigt’s GAS, William Basinski and Alvin Lucier Cusack “explores a variety…

  • Django Django – Marble Skies

    January 26, 2018 - By 

    Anyone who has ever been in a band knows the importance that power dynamics play. The internal struggle is one fought by most members and often glamorised by talking heads in music documentaries. Were they the ‘quiet one’ or the ‘egotist’? The “fight-starter” or “facilitator”? Such stereotypes don’t seem to apply to Django Django. The four-piece formed at the Edinburgh College of Arts feel closer to the proper meaning of a “band” – they feel like a collective. Vincent Jeff provides those quintessential reverb-soaked vocals; Jimmy Dixon the harmonies that give the band “their” sound; Tommy Grave the synths that offer…