Ward Park 3 in Bangor, featuring Snow Patrol, Two Door Cinema Club, Ash, Foy Vance, SOAK, the Wood Burning Savages and Kitt Philippa. Photos by Niall Fegan
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At the heart of Bangor three-piece Gender Chores‘ fuzzed-out punk craft is ardent political consciousness and incisive activist spirit. Staring down and decimating everything from Northern Ireland’s archaic abortion laws, the patriarchy and more, new EP Womensplain is a self-assured and vital statement that, rather than meekly express the desire for change across the board, positively demands it. Stream the EP in full below.
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Cork has fostered a healthy collaborative atmosphere among its musical populace in the last number of years, with an ever-expanding community of fusion groups, side projects, one-off jam sessions and young, experimental collectives sprouting to exchange ideas, explore new creative avenues and perform one-off collaborations never to be played again. One of those at the centre of it all is multi-instrumentalist Dan Walsh, whose monthly Cork Improvised Music Club night (formerly at Gulpd café, now at The Roundy) and previous work at the helm of improvisational outfit, Fixity, have done more than satisfy Cork’s thirst for psychedelic exploration. An…
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Brooklyn indie rock band Big Thief with support from Crake at Vicar Street in Dublin. Photos by Colm Laverty
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Comprising members of NI alt-rock royalty in Throat and Element, the music of Portadown/Larne trio Duellists is full-blown, riff-fuelled testament to the power of perseverance and pushing forward. Off the back of lead singles ‘Into the Fade’ and the recently-released ‘Perspective’, their long-awaited debut album, Into The Fade, makes for a breakneck, twelve-track statement of intent across 35 minutes. Recorded by Caolán Austin at Smalltown America Studios in Derry and mixed by Kurt Ballou (Converge) at Godcity Studios, it’s a release that firmly reveals the threesome to be at the peak of their collective powers. Duellists play Dundalk’s The Spirit Store on…
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The word “Mastalgia” is a medical term referring to the heavy, dull tight breast pain commonly experienced by most women, and usually without utterance. It’s also the name of the new six-track record from Dublin’s Bitflower Bb (the side project of DJ and producer Dream~cycles.) A lush, evocative blend of electronic and organic sounds, it’s a close, intimate collection of bedroom-pop songs produced throughout 2017-2018. Simultaneously dreamy and affecting, at times Mastalgia recalls the lo-fi experimental pop of Galway-native, Dublin-based Maria Somerville or the vast soundscapes of Grouper, but overall, it’s an undeniably unusual record. The title’s reference to a private, interior…
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A number of Irish musicians will be speaking about career-related mental health issues at the Mind YourSelf: Mental Health & Music event in Dublin’s Tara Building this Saturday, 25th May. Westport native Maria Kelly and Dublin’s Paddy Hanna, will be among the musicians coming together to speak on the importance of looking after one’s mental health in music industry careers’. The Mind YourSelf panel, hosted by Selfmade, will look at the factors affecting the mental health of artists and how these manifest, as well as the importance of open discussions, self-care, access to support and the need for positive cultural and…
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Dublin-based indie-noise outfit The Elephant Room are one of a select number of DIY artists in Ireland assimilating a broad range of influences from the 60s through to the present year with complete seamlessness. We’re pleased to be premiering their sprawling new single ‘Juniper & Pine’, complete with the band’s self-made video. The song itself is an almost ten minute marriage of experimental noisecraft and lo-fi pop that somehow never outstays its welcome as ekes out new levels of its conceptual framework. Easing in with a Laurel Canyon-indebted neo-psych groove, its lysergic-soaked corners quickly darken into a clamorous sonic ego-death parallel, before returning to consensus reality as something familiar, yet altered.…
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Despite their relatively young age, kitchen sink indie rock five piece Buí have been crafting some of the most earnestly well-crafted power-pop tunes around. Not ones to tread the beaten path, they debuted with a fully-fledged long-player in 2017’s Eugene, and have since been built their DIY profile from the ground up. The video for new single ‘Something Else To Talk About’ is an astounding feat – an 8-bit video game animation that not just acts as an apt visual companion to the song, but functions as its own winsome arcade fable. As if the band were collectively assimilated into a Scott Pilgrim fever dream – each…
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In recent years, The National have shifted towards a communal approach in music making, altering their compositional practices to be more inclusive, and concerned with offering new perspectives. With Aaron and Bryce Dessner’s involvement in PEOPLE – a collective of creatives collaborating on music projects, live performances and podcasts – The National have embraced a collaborative space, and I Am Easy To Find may be the absolute embodiment of this new form. Maintaining some of the gloomy aura of 2016’s highly acclaimed Sleep Well Beast, the record avoids burden, chiefly due to the addition of vocals from artists like Lisa…