• Nealo w/ Alex Gough @ Whelans, Dublin

    March 31, 2019 - By 

    From the smoking area of Whelans, dull rhythmic thuds can be heard from within the venue’s upstairs stage. Alex Gough has just begun his very first live set and for the few that have gathered to watch, it is apparent that he is no ordinary hip-hop act. Clad in what could be described as 1960s beach-wear, the 19-year-old Waterford-born prodigy is not only the on-duty MC, but also the resident drummer. Gough effortlessly juggles J-Dilla inspired beats with flows that are as smooth in delivery as they are sticky with funk. Although stiff at first, Gough (below) and his band…

  • A4 Sounds presents: Silverbacks & Extravision

    April 2, 2019 - By 

    Since 2009, Dublin hub A4 has went above and beyond in their mission to transform the means by which cultural works are produced, accessed, and understood in Ireland. Their latest initiative – a new bi-monthly gig night – is one that we’re fully behind. Curated by Matt Hedigan, an artist and member of Hands Up Who Wants To Die, No Spill Blood and Elk, the next installment of the series unites two of our very favourite fast-rising bands from Dublin on Friday, April 5th: Silverbacks and Extravision  It’s BYOB and runs from 8-11pm. Go here for the gig’s Facebook event page and check…

  • Festival Mixtape: Vantastival 2019

    March 29, 2019 - By 

    In an age when we’re lucky to have new-fangled festivals are springing up left, right and centre, Drogheda’s Vantastival holds steady as one of the country’s most consistently impressive – and downright eclectic – Irish summer festials. Set to return to Beaulieu House and Gardens for its 10th anniversary across May 31-June 2, this year’s outing will play host to everyone from King Kong Company, Lisa O’Neill and Just Mustard, to Wallis Bird, Afro Celt Sound System and Pillow Queens. The Co. Louth festival has always boasted much more than a carefully-curated bill of music and this year is no…

  • First Names Announced for Stendhal

    March 29, 2019 - By 

    Long one of the country’s very best summer festivals, Stendhal returns to Ballmully Cottage Farm in Limavady, Co Derry/Londonderry across August 15-17th. Today, organisers have announced the first acts to play this year’s outing and it’s a strong mix of established and fast-rising, international and homegrown. With many more to be announced, among the highlights is a DJ Set from Basement Jaxx, Borders aka Elma Orkestra and Ryan Vail (pictured), Dublin indie rock quartet Bouts, Mob Wife, Amy Montgomery, Lost Brothers, David Keenan, Roe and Stevie Scullion aka Malojian. Check out the first line-up announcement in full below and go here…

  • The Dig

    March 28, 2019 - By 

    The Irish bog is fertile metaphorical soil. It’s dank, ancient, unforgiving. It brings you down and sucks you in and swallows you up. It is our countryside version of Jordan Peele’s sunken place. In The Dig, filmed in soggy Northern Irish landscapes, the bog represents obsession, or death, or the past; ideal terrain for a moody murder-mystery drama drenched in male guilt. Written by Stuart Drennan, whose 2014 film Breaker also turned on questions of memory and buried secrets, and marking the feature directorial debut of Belfast-born brothers Andy and Ryan Tohill, The Dig gets much out of its basic premise…

  • James Yorkston – The Route to the Harmonium

    March 28, 2019 - By 

    It’s been five long years since Scottish folk singer James Yorkston’s last solo album – 2014’s The Cellardyke Recording and Wassailing Society – though he’s certainly not been resting on his laurels in that time. As well as turning novelist and podcaster (spinning esoteric tunes on ‘46-30’), he’s put out two highly acclaimed albums in quick succession with his new trio, Yorkston/Thorne/Khan – a sort of folk-fusion collaboration with his regular double bass player Jon Thorne and Indian sarangi player Suhail Khan (a third album is already recorded and ready for release early next year). All the while, though, he’s…

  • Girls Rock Dublin Announce 2019 Camp

    April 3, 2019 - By 

    Following the success of the past two years, Girls Rock Dublin has announced the return of its summer camp for 12-17 year olds. Set to take place over the last week of June, from 25th-29th, the camp has taken great care in ensuring more inclusivity than ever before. There are spaces for 20 (cis & trans) girls and gender non-binary folks, with half of this number designated as scholarships to applicants from Direct Provision and low-income households. Over the five days, twenty applicants will form a band, learn an instrument, write a song & perform onstage by the end, with no previous…

  • Bats – Alter Nature

    March 28, 2019 - By 

    At long last, one of Ireland’s finest, most singular time-signature-wielding visionaries are back. One of the figureheads in the Richter Collective sound that sculpted independent Dublin music some years ago, BATS are set to release their third album later this year. Titled Alter Nature, it’s been 7 years in the making. The album was recorded by Rian Trench and Robert Watson at The Meadow in Delgany. Frontman Rupert Morris says “It’s fully in keeping with BATS ethos of promoting science and reason over superstition and features songs about CRISPR technology, artificial intelligence, Christian science and a legendary giant hammerhead shark called Old Hitler.” Slated for release…

  • 19 for ’19: Elikya

    March 28, 2019 - By 

    More than any other group in Ireland, Elikya bleed history. Founded in Limerick in 2001 as a community choir of sorts, Elikya’s primary objective was to promote “multicultural diversity and integration through the sharing and promotion of Congolese music and culture”. Over the years, the group became a home for a coterie of legends in Congolese music. Drummer Trocadero — a child prodigy who started his career with the famous Congolese singer and bandleader Johnny Bokelo Isenge — joined them early on but it was 2017 when the group’s profile rose significantly. The iconoclastic Pepe Felly Manuaku, founder of the…

  • Remembering Scott Walker: Neil Brogan on Nite Flights by The Walker Brothers

    March 27, 2019 - By 

    The first song I reached for when I read Scott had passed was ‘Nite Flights’. Something about the strange, languid defiance of this song has always lifted me. The four tracks Scott contributed to the Walker Brothers final album represent the pivotal moment in his discography, the hinge that connects Scott Walker the faded 60’s pop star to latter-day avant Scott. The album itself was a contract filler, recorded in 1978 when the Walker Brother’s reunion had worn out a brief mid-decade welcome. They could have hashed out a few covers and called it quits, instead they each decided to…