• EP Premiere: May Rosa – Waxwork Sweetheart

    February 14, 2019 - By 

    Having confidently marked her arrival with debut single ‘Dancing in the Debris’ back in 2017, Belfast artist May Rosa establishes her as a fully-formed alt-pop contender on Waxwork Sweetheart. Across four tracks – from slow-burning lead single ‘All The Ways’ to the release’s Julee Cruise-summoning title track, it sees the London-based chanteuse’s finely-woven and phantasmal craft refined to seventeen all-too-fleeting minutes. Have a first listen to the EP – and a first look at the video for ‘All The Ways’ – below.

  • Watch: Post Punk Podge & The Technohippies – Full-Time Mad Bastard

    February 15, 2019 - By 

    Sure he only put out one of our Irish tracks of the year in ‘Never Coming Back’ at the tail end of 2018, but Post Punk Podge & The Technohippies‘ second EP, Post Millennium Tension, is with us, and so too is the video for lead single ‘Full Time Mad Bastard’.  Generally speaking, he’s one of the best at chronicling & satirising every social issue imposed by the elder half upon the younger half of the island’s consciousness. He’s is back with a hot new visage for the year, with an album in the works, he was one of our 19 for ’19 acts for good reason. …

  • Premiere: Maya Goldblum – Light Me Up

    February 15, 2019 - By 

    Content Note: Depression & suicide One of the growing number of Derry-based acts currently blurring genre lines and eschewing conventions, Idaho-born singer & guitarist Maya Goldblum – or Queen Bonobo in a full band setting – is set to release her debut album, Light Shadow Boom Boom, in May. Ahead of that, we’re premiering lead single ‘Light Me Up’, a buoyant slice of soulful jazz whose winsome face belies a diaristic portrayal of depression, as Goldblum brings gravitas and candour to a style of music currently underrepresented – at least in an artistic sense – in Northern Ireland. Maya had a chat with us about its subject matter: “Light Me Up stemmed from feeling constrained in…

  • 19 for ’19: Proper Micro NV

    February 13, 2019 - By 

    We continue 19 for ‘19 – our feature looking at nineteen Irish acts that we’re convinced are going places in 2019 – with Limerick songwriter and producer Proper Micro NV. Photo by Moira Reilly Late last year, Limerick producer, singer and songwriter Rory Hall aka Proper Micro NV marked his arrival via the masterfully mottled Dormant Boy. Spanning experimental electronica and downtempo electro-pop jams, it proved a cohesive, gem-heavy twelve-tracker from an artist who has rightfully garnered comparisons to the likes of James Blake and Mount Kimbie from the off. Hall has packed a lot into his three years as an active proposition. From signing…

  • Ariana Grande – thank u, next

    February 12, 2019 - By 

    Ariana Grande’s stratospheric rise to fame – with all its adoration, chaos, and residence at the top of the Billboard 100 – has been a tumultuous one. First breaking into the public sphere through virtue of a Nickelodeon show, everything about the Florida-born entertainer seemed innocent, childlike. The fact that her first scandal involved licking a donut speaks for itself. In the past two years however, the now 25- year-old has been forced to grow-up. And unlike many of her child-star peers, she has done it with a grace and defiance that has endeared her to the world and turned…

  • Album Stream: Regret Will Come – Regret Will Come

    February 13, 2019 - By 

    We didn’t know about this until yesterday, but thanks to a rare bit of social algorithmic fortune, we’re sharing with you the new, self-titled album from lo-fi bedroom indie project Regret Will Come. At times a catch-all Bandcamp postcard of a solitary bedroom life unlived in the vein of early (Sandy) Alex G – see: ‘Tainaka’ – and at times vulnerably discordant and slowcore – there’s Duster all over ‘Akari’ – it was seemingly made to fit on the dynamic shelves of Exploding In Sound Records or some other unheard-of indie label out in the American midwest. Regret Will Come is comprised solely of Co. Monaghan auteur Fintan Gallagher, who writes, plays and…

  • Stream: Royal Yellow – Aruba

    February 12, 2019 - By 

    ‘Aruba’ is the slick new single from Mark O’Brien (A.K.A. Royal Yellow). The former Enemies front man has followed up on his infectious 2018 release ‘Hazeldene’ with a track which offers us a wider glimpse of Royal Yellow. Contrasting the lo-fi beats and melancholic lyrics of ‘Hazeldene’, ‘Aruba’ draws in the listener with whispered chanting reminiscent of Blue Swede’s ‘Hooked On A Feeling’. What follows is a rush of well polished pop, rock, soul, and everything in between. While the song features strings, flutes, and rich vocal harmonies alongside a grooving rhythm section, it remains balanced, never losing itself under…

  • 19 for ’19: Lemoncello

    February 12, 2019 - By 

    We continue 19 for ‘19 – our feature looking at nineteen Irish acts that we’re convinced are going places in 2019 – with Maynooth alternative folk duo Lemoncello. Photo by Joe Laverty A duo who formed while studying music and languages in Maynooth University, Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella aka Lemoncello have carved out a unique, increasingly compelling niche in Irish alternative folk over the last five years. As well as helping to found the Common Grounds Collective – a group dedicated to building a network of musicians of all disciplines and giving them “a platform to create and showcase…

  • Lauryn Hill Set For Cork Show

    February 12, 2019 - By 

    Ms. Lauryn Hill is the latest act announced to play an open air show at Cork’s Irish Independent Park on June 26. The multi-Grammy award winning artist will perform music from her seminal debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and more. Tickets are priced at €49.90 and go on sale at 8.30am on Friday, February 15.

  • Mini Mansions Announce Dublin Show

    February 12, 2019 - By 

    L.A. trio Mini Mansions have announced a show in Dublin. The band, comprised of Michael Shuman, Zach Dawes and Tyler Parkford, will play Whelan’s on Wednesday, May 8th. Marking their first show in the city since 2015, it will take place as part of a UK and Irish tour to coincide with their forthcoming third album, Guy Walks Into A Bar… Tickets cost €18.45 and go on sale on Thursday, February 21 at 9am.