• Julia Jacklin – Crushing

    From the outside of a diary we observe nothing but casual scratches and marks of use on deep brown leather. Gently a hand moves to it, and with intention flicks to the next available blank page. A pen moves swiftly to and fro. Ink enters the page not by any requirement of physics, but seemingly through the weight of the deliberation behind it. Lines cross and titles sit unassumingly, until the sign off they reach outwards; the cover is closed and again the aged leather holds our gaze. Following up her 2016 debut Don’t Let the Kids Win, Julia Jacklin…

  • Panda Bear – Buoys

    Panda Bear’s Buoys is a mirage of deconstructed indie governed by its uninhibited stream of consciousness lyrical style. His writing makes this one of the most vivid depictions of society in 2019 so far and a lament to a generation condemned by its own vanity. Through minimalism, Panda Bear – Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox – draws the listener’s attention solely to his sincere, reverberated vocals through which he bares a haunting portrait of the modern human psyche. Lennox succeeds in making the familiar sound unfamiliar, taking the roots of conventional tracks and scrambling them into something completely unrecognisable and unique.…

  • Stream: Swimmers Jackson – Believe

    A jack of all trades and master of many, London-based Dubliner Niall Jackson is right up there as one of the hardest-working Irish musicians you’re ever likely to come across. Beyond being a member of indie-rock quartet Bouts (who have just released quite possibly the Irish album of the year thus far) and post-punk duo Sweat Threats, he’s also been drip-feeding the world some stellar sounds in his solo guise, Swimmers Jackson, since 2013. New single ‘Believe’ is one of his most emphatic efforts to date. A candid and carefully-crafted tale, it doubles up as something of an extension of last year’s ‘Pain In the Heart’.…

  • Premiere: Joshua Burnside – The Good Word (Live at the Elmwood Hall)

    Northern Irish alt-folk trailblazer Joshua Burnside has announced the release of a new album, Live at the Elmwood Hall. Recorded at Belfast’s historic Elmwood Hall, as part of Quiet Arch’s fourth birthday in December 2018, it’s release that reveals the full spectrum of Burnside’s emphatic craft. Featuring reworked, full-band arrangements of tracks handpicked from his Northern Irish Music Prize-winning album, EPHRATA, as well as EPs Hollllogram and All Round the Light Said, it captures a set that leaps between intimate and raw, to full-blown and celebratory. Speaking about the album, Burnside said, “It’s quite strange listening to it back in way, like…

  • Stereolab Set For Irish Shows

    Re-emerging English-French avant-pop heroes Stereolab have announce two Irish shows. Having went on hiatus in 2009, the band will return to play a series of dates in 2019, including Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on June 24 and Vicar Street in Dublin on June 25. Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday.

  • Video Premiere: Casavettes – I’m Not Here, I’m Somewhere Else

    It’s just five days from the release of Limerick emo trio Casavettes‘ debut album, Senselessness. One of the pillars of the DIY LK community, new single ‘I’m Not Here, I’m Somewhere Else’ is a low-key diversion from their anthemic early-Biffy inspired work, with its glacial guitar conjuring myopic images of that post-relationship confusion and detachment. Tastefully shot by the band and edited by Colm O’Shea, its non-linear monochrome video was inspired in part by All This Can Happen by Siobhan Davies and David Hinton, revealing lived layers of undefined beginnings and endings by dividing the frame in two. Artwork for both ‘I’m Not Here…’ & Senseless comes from Laya Meabhdh Kenny, with…

  • Stream: Slouch – Day Half

    We’ve been singing the praises of Slouch to anyone who will listen for an age now. Comprising guitarist and vocalist Conor Wilson, bassist Kev Shannon and drummer Malachy Burke, the Dublin trio’s shapeshifting, scuzzed-out sounds defy easy categorisation more than the vast majority of Irish bands all-too-swiftly referred to “alt-rock”. In truth, Slouch have also felt like a genuine alternative – a riff-wielding, face-searing, psychogroove-pedalling flipside – in a scene heavily saturated with FM-flirting, Award-Winning-Music-Blogger-appeasing guitar rock. The lead single from their forthcoming “very nearly finished” debut album, ‘Day Half’ sublimates the very best aspects of Slouch’s craft to five masterfully unpredictable minutes. Marrying dizzying riff…