• Inbound: The Personal Vanity Project

    May 9, 2023 - By 

    Formed during lockdown by producer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and all-round Limerick indie king Chris Quigley, The Personal Vanity Project is a new proposition sourced from high-spec parts in drummer/vocalist Brendan McInerney (Bleeding Heart Pigeons) and James Reidy (His Father’s Voice) on keyboards/space FX. Quigley gave us the full scoop: “The starting point was me hearing about this rumoured Kevin Shields drum’n’bass record that was never released, which left me thinking, ‘Oh I wonder what that would have sounded like?’. Terrible, really bad. So I made a few bits, but gradually found myself drifting towards something more interesting – which was this…

  • Video Premiere: NIMF – A Ballad for Looking into Time

    May 9, 2023 - By 

    Within the space of four months last year, we featured Arklow musician Aoibhín Redmond aka NIMF as one-to-watch and her sprawling, ten-minute single ‘A Ballad for Looking into Time’ as our outright favourite Irish song of 2022. Six months on – and one year to the day since the release of the single – we feel ever surer that she’s on the path to further genre-defying brilliance. Premiered here today, the video for ‘A Ballad for Looking into Time’ is a perfect opportunity to get acquainted. Initially created for NIMF’s Master’s Project on the concept of the uncanny in Music…

  • Irish Tour: Boris

    May 8, 2023 - By 

    Boris set out on their Irish tour last week performing live at Cyprus Avenue in Cork, The Button Factory in Dublin and The Black Box in Belfast with support from Pupil Slicer. Photos by Celeste Burdon, Monika Ruman and Aislinn McGinn Cyprus Avenue in Cork by Celeste Burdon The Button Factory in Dublin by Monika Ruman The Black Box in Belfast by Aislinn McGinn

  • “Are we really back here again?” The Return of girlfriend.

    May 5, 2023 - By 

    Following a three-year hiatus, Hana Lamari and Lahela Jones of Dublin DIY heroes girlfriend. discuss their return to the scene, Ireland’s ever-changing music community and the secret to longevity Words by Jack Rudden Photos by Gemma Bovenizer In a country as small as Ireland, independent music is an intimate and sometimes volatile affair. Artists, promoters and venues are cobbled together or torn asunder with remarkable speed and comparable tenacity. Only the most dedicated can survive atop these ever-shifting subcultural tectonic plates. Those that are willing to fight tooth and nail, reinvent and lay themselves bare are capable of enduring the…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 5th May

    May 5, 2023 - By 

    It’s Bandcamp Friday once again, and it’s been yet another banner week for Irish releases. Dig into the best of them from The Bonk, Adjunct Ensemble, Chalk, Elaine Mai & MayKay, Pôt-Pôt and more The Bonk – The Blueshirt Shuffle The Blueshirt Shuffle by The Bonk Adjunct Ensemble – Sovereign Bodies/Ritual Taxonomy Chalk – Conditions Elaine Mai & MayKay – 3am Alpha Chrome Yayo – Hidden Earth Hidden Earth by Alpha Chrome Yayo Asi Nisi Masa – Cobweb Thread Daniel Luke – Shadow Dance Shadow Dance by Daniel Luke Raja Baal – I Will Never Be Cool (You Can’t Make Me)…

  • EP Stream: Pôt-Pôt – Ode To A

    May 5, 2023 - By 

    Following their first gig as a four-piece in March for the Port-To-Port festival in Lisbon, we’re delighted to give you a first listen to Ode To A, the debut EP from Cork-based experimental project pôt-pôt. Its four swirling, oneiric songs are based entirely around the note of A, with it being the only musical note used across the whole record. Cork’s Mark Waldron-Hyden (drums, synth, vocals) created pôt-pôt initially as a solo project – with the goal of writing only music that could be recreated as a solo act – during lockdown, before moving to Lisbon, where he met and recruited bassist Joe Armitage and guitarist Michael…