• Premiere: Robbie Strickland – Suffocated

    November 26, 2020 - By 

    Back in January, Dublin musician Robbie Stickland made a strong impression with ‘Lizard‘. Taken from his debut album, Warm Jeans in the Morning, it was a compelling return from an artist who is something of a cult figure in Dublin’s indie scene. Though brief, new single ‘Suffocated’ ups the ante. Clocking in at just over two minutes, it’s a masterfully lax DIY effort that – alongside material that will feature on a forthcoming EP – was recorded in a city centre apartment with a half-functioning four-track tape machine. According to Strickland, the single aims to capture “the experience that many sensitive and…

  • Video Premiere: Sean Being – Angel

    November 25, 2020 - By 

    Sean Being has shared a new single, ‘Angel’, with accompanying visuals premiering today (25th November). It marks the Dublin’ artist’s first new music since 2019’s ‘The Brikc’ tape on the reliably excellent wherethetimegoes label. ‘Angel’ pushes his experimental pop style further, with cloudy, euphoric synths, emotive vocal hooks and a crisp, lo-fi electronic rhythm coming together to produce an autumnal anthem, made for late-night walks. The video for the track, directed by Anna Heisterkamp, is appropriately tender, and makes for a beautifully atmospheric accompaniment. The track is set to appear on a new EP from Sean Being, which is set to…

  • Video Premiere: Messying x Post Punk Podge – Still At The Music

    November 23, 2020 - By 

    “Are you still at the music? Are you making a few bob? Are you happy in yourself?”  Taken from the wonderful Litany of Failures Vol. III compilation, released last month, Kerry producer Messyng and underground Limerick mouthpiece par excellence Post Punk Podge have teamed up to deliver a spicy video – directed by Steve Savage – for their collaborative single, ‘Still At The Music’, featuring Podge’s Great Giveaway of a Antique Shitshow™. Its timing an act of serendipity, today has seen equal shares of elation and deflation with regards to the results of potentially career-changing musical project support grants for artists across the Irish music industry. As is Podge’s M.O.,…

  • Monday Mixtape: Tandem Felix

    November 23, 2020 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his stellar new single ‘The Assassination’ on Friday, David Tapley AKA Tandem Felix handpicks some of his all-time favourite tracks, from Abba and Aphex Twin, to George Michael and Richard Dawson. Aphex Twin – ‘korg funk 5’ This is one of the pieces that Richard D. James made as a demonstration of the Korg Monologue synthesiser. As one of the top YouTube comments says: “A product demo has no business sounding this good.” At the start of lockdown, I was drinking six cups of coffee a day. This song was one that perfectly matched my…

  • Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – May Our Chambers Be Full

    November 25, 2020 - By 

    On paper, a collaborative album by a singer-songwriter and a sludge metal band seems unusual. To those in the know, however, it makes complete, perfect sense. Neither featured act on May Our Chambers Be Full are strangers to collaboration; Emma Ruth Rundle has been a member of experimental bands the Nocturnes, Red Sparowes and Marriages, and provided backing vocals on Thrice’s 2018 album Palms, while Thou have released a litany of split 7” and EPs with various peers, and in 2015 released You, Whom I Have Always Hated a collaborative full-length album with fellow doom merchants, The Body. More to the…

  • the arts column: November 2020

    November 22, 2020 - By 

    This week sees the return of the arts column, our round-up off Irish arts events and related news. We’ll be moving this from a weekly to a monthly column and expand our listings to cover as much as we can. In this edition, we’ve got details on Dublin Art Book Fair which launches this week with a number of talks and workshops, info on PhotoIreland’s HALFTONE and Tsundoku, an online art fair from West Cork Arts Centre, as well as details of online exhibitions and projects, podcasts, residencies and virtual tour. If you have got an event, talk, exhibition, etc., please…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – November 20th

    November 20, 2020 - By 

    As we creep steadily closer to the end of an… interesting year, things are still very much delivering on the Irish music front. Doubling up as twelve cases in point, here are the very best tracks from the island released this week. Myles Manley – Shiteshow Cometh the Softies by Myles Manley Ryan Vail & Ruth McGinley – Chrysalim Licehead – Perfect Death Forever Perfect Death Forever by Licehead Thumper – Topher Grace (Senu Remix) Dani Larkin – Samson & Goliath Meljoann – Trophy Wife F.R.U.I.T.Y. – Not Quite Exceptional Not Quite Exceptional by F.R.U.I.T.Y. Sal Dulu – B feat.…

  • Robocobra Quartet to Stream Performance for London Jazz Festival

    November 19, 2020 - By 

    As part of the 2020 EFG London Jazz Festival, one of Ireland’s finest live acts, and long-time TTA favourites Robocobra Quartet are set to broadcast a 30 minute set of their boundary-pushing jazz-infused post-punk this Sunday, November 22nd at 6pm. Expect established tracks and unreleased music from their next album, with the video recorded and filmed in studio quality. They told us: “This is the only live-streamed performance we’re doing this year and so we decided to take our time to do it right and make something special. Instead of just filming from an audience perspective to replicate a gig, our set is shot from…

  • Premiere: Comrade Hat – Whatever You Do

    November 19, 2020 - By 

    Off-kilter pop genius Neil Burns, AKA Comrade Hat has shared the latest single from his forthcoming album, Old Gods, Vol. 1. ‘Whatever You Do’ sees the lounge lizard in more reflective form, taking a slight left from his arch persona; It’s jazz-flecked, instilled with a morsel of vulnerability. Messr Hat told us more about the song: “It’s a ballad from BC (before Covid) about the struggles of physical distances in relationships, but it took on a whole new resonance this year. Aptly, it’s a remote collaboration with two of the finest heads around – rising stars of jazz and everything in the vicinity, Jack Kelly (double…

  • IMC Presents: Piece by Piece – Season 2

    November 17, 2020 - By 

    Six months on from its inaugural outing, Improvised Music Company have announced the second installment of their online concert series Piece By Piece. A unique musical ‘chain letter’ of online improvisation, with eight forward-pishing artists from Ireland creating new work in sequence, the new series will kick off on November 27 with guitarist and electronic music artist Aengus Hackett AKA Penji. “With a fresh impetus for this second season of Piece by Piece, the principle of interconnectedness will continue, with each artist’s performance influencing or inspiring the next,” organisers said, “Piece by piece, artists will create new improvised work, based on…