• Stream: THVS – Palisades

    August 16, 2019 - By 

    Ahead of the release of its video next week, Belfast trio THVS have just released their latest and greatest track to date, ‘Palisades’. Following on from last year’s promising three-tracker Plague Widows, it makes for a suitably emphatic three-minute blast of breakneck, riff-fuelled abandon from the self-proclaimed “heavy pop” trio. Read our recent interview with the band here and check out the single (along with a live version of ‘Neon Demons’) below. ‘Palisades’ is launched at Belfast’s Limelight 2 tomorrow (August 17th) alongside Conjecture 42 and Gas Hands. Doors are at 5pm.

  • UK Post-Punk Duo JOHN Set For Irish Tour

    August 15, 2019 - By 

    Raw UK garage-punk duo JOHN are set to make their first appearance in Ireland later this year, accompanying the release of their second album, Out Here On The Fringes, set for release on October 4. This run of shows comes at the end of a lengthy spell in France & the UK, following an eleven-country spell in 2018 with Idles. Taking place in conjunction with some of our favourite venues, artists & promoters (Why. Gigs & Drone Mansions) – their three-date run is as follows: Friday, November 29 // Bennigans Bar, Derry w/His Father’s Voice & SHŌTO Saturday, November 30 // The 343, Belfast w/Problem Patterns and Wake House Sunday, December 1 // The Sound…

  • Countersunk share video for 101 Beats Per Minute track, ‘Retkiluistelu’

    August 15, 2019 - By 

    Following the success of last year’s immense compilation, Dublin experimental label, Countersunk, has been sharing a new track every week since April as part of 101 Beats Per Minute II. Featuring contributions from a wide range of Irish musicians and producers, each track in the collection, as with the first edition, is as distinct as the next, with the only brief given being that it has to be recorded at 101 bpm. The tracks themselves continue to be released anonymously, with the likes of Blusher, Kobina, Eomac, David Kitt, ROMY and Linda Buckley among the new compilation’s contributors. “We’re hoping to create a dialogue between…

  • 40 New Acts Added to Electric Picnic Bill

    August 14, 2019 - By 

    With just over a month to go, Electric Picnic have revealed the names of forty new acts set to play this year’s festival. Returning to Stradbally Hall in Co. Laois across August 30-September 1st, the festival has announced that Johnny Marr (pictured), Charli XCX, Richard Ashcroft and J Hus will join the likes of the already-announced The Strokes, Billie Eilish, Four Tet, James Blake and more. Check out the current line-up below and go here for more info. This year’s Electric Picnic is sold-out.

  • Video Premiere: Not I – Please, No Kindness, Please

    August 15, 2019 - By 

    Being a consistently arresting two-piece is no easy task – not least when the majority mines along the garage-blues-punk spectrum with little deviation. Dublin duo Not I – formerly Nervvs – take a hard left into something far more sophisticated by virtue of their grasp of minimalism, and seemingly telepathic interplay between vocalist/guitarist Thomas O’Reilly & drummer Ian Meagher. The title track of their debut album is an immediate primer for the band, O’Reilly’s sardonic, kitchen sink worldview screams for meaning in the mundane; “It’s a song about the struggle to make art and not get lost in the swamp of the day-to-day, resolving with an…

  • Monday Mixtape: Elma Orkestra & Ryan Vail

    August 12, 2019 - By 

    In the latest installment of Monday Mixtape, Eoin O’Callaghan aka Elma Orkestra and Ryan Vail – a duo who has recently released one of the Irish albums of the year in Borders – select some of the tracks made an imprint on writing and recording of the project. Catch Borders, live, at the following upcoming shows: Stendhal Festival – 16th August Electric Picnic – 30th August Max Richter – On The Nature of Daylight (Entropy) This has been one of our favourite tunes to date. We’ve been listening to it since its release many years ago. Most recognise it from the…

  • Preview: Féile na Gréine 2019

    August 12, 2019 - By 

    It’s no longer up for debate: right now, the network of promoters, venues and artists that make up Ireland’s extraordinary DIY music scene (singular) is the strongest and most homogeneous that it’s ever been. From Dundalk, Cork, and Belfast to Letterkenny, Dublin, Derry and beyond, incalculable good people are putting on world-beating shows and festivals, featuring acts of every ilk and every conceivable corner of the island. No area or sound is being overlooked. No band is stranded in the arse-end of nowhere after a show. Blind, sweeping reverence for Dublin as some sort of untouchable bastion of Irish music…