• Premiere: Travis Is A Tourist – Loosen Up

    June 29, 2015 - By 

    In a land and age increasingly over-saturated with every conceivable ilk and fashion of singer-songwriter, Travis Gilbert AKA Travis Is A Tourist manages to carve his own path of folk-pop, one imbued with a real, almost touchable sense of purpose. The follow-up to his ear-grabbing 2013 debut EP, Gilbert will release the five-track Weakdays on July 6, a release defined by Gilbert’s wonderfully crafted admissions of open-eyed restlessness, doubt and destiny. Seeking to “marry the robust rock of artists such as Ryan Adams with a slice of Prince-esque R’n’B” the EP’s lead single ‘Loosen Up’ distils the essence of Weakdays across three and a…

  • Mastodon w/ Bad Breeding @ Olympia Theatre, Dublin

    June 29, 2015 - By 

    The night begins with a small clan of bemused faces. On the stage is Bad Breeding (frontman, Chris Dodd, below), throwing out fuzzy, mashed agro punk. Clever without being innovative it’s reminiscent of Black Flag, Crass and the noise-rock elements of bands like The Horrors. Not a bad thing, in and of itself, but elements of the crowd are as disinterested as the distortion is unrelenting. This simply seems to be a case of bad booking. So the majority of the crowd hole up in The Olympia’s wonderfully anachronistic bar. The black t-shirts are adorned with tonight’s headliner and the…

  • Front of House: Rocky O’Reilly (Start Together Studios)

    June 26, 2015 - By 

    In the latest installment of Front of House, Laura Carland chats to Rocky O’Reilly of Start Together Studios about the origins of the studio, making music as part of Malibu Shark Attack, his career highlights to date and much more. Photos by Colm Laverty. Hi Rocky! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Hi, my name is Rocky O’Reilly and I’m a recording engineer , producer and mixer. I co-own Start Together Studios in Belfast where I spend most of my time recording all sorts of music from doom metal through to indie-pop and rap music. How did you first become involved in music? I guess it was…

  • Stream: Come On Live Long – Speak Up

    June 26, 2015 - By 

    Having positively enamoured with their previous single ‘Trough’ (which we premiered back in January) Dublin’s Come On Live Long have returned with a fluttering, kaleidoscopic, seven-minute alt-pop gem, ‘Speak Up’. Recorded in August last year, the recording of the track was “an opportunity for the band to try out a new way to collaborate, adopting a different approach to communicating and arranging the piece”. We’re big fans. Stream the track below.

  • Track Record: Gib Cassidy (Girls Names)

    June 25, 2015 - By 

    When we came up with the idea for Track Record as a feature, Gib Cassidy was top of our list. He has spent years working in all the best record shops in Dublin and even set up his very own, Elastic Witch (sadly missed) so his taste is unparalleled. We’re delighted we’ve finally pinned him down due to his busy schedule playing with Girl Names for a rummage through his records. Here, he selects the key choices representing his broad collection, from Arthur Russell to Alice Coltrane. Photos by Aaron Corr. The Slits – Cut (Island, 1979) The Slits debut album is…

  • Stream: The Host – Peri-Natal Imprinting

    June 24, 2015 - By 

    Following on from the release of Cherrystones’ Critical Mass, Belfast-based imprint Touch Sensetive have announced that Esalen Lectures by Northern Irish producer The Host (AKA Barry Lynn/Boxcutter) will be their next release on August 14. As well as unveiled release info, the label have also made available a track from the release, ‘Peri-Natal Imprinting’. A teasing slice of oscillating abstracted ambience, the track follows on from the release of ‘World Sensitive‘ back in April. Check out the very intriguing back-story and underlying impetus behind the release, and stream the track itself, below. “Inspired by think tanks and floatation tanks, psychological research, 2012 mythology, 1960’s…

  • Stream: Oh Volcano – Rush Of Blood

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Forming from the embers of General Fiasco early last year, Belfast brother duo Owen and Enda Strathern AKA Oh Volcano have consistently piqued our interest over the last couple of years with sporadic live shows and singles including ‘Oceans’ and ‘See No Evil’. Taken from their forthcoming debut, Don’t Know Love, new single ‘Rush of Blood’ goes one further, proving a very considered, wonderfully produced piece of electro-pop. Oh Volcano play their next show at Belfast’s Empire on July 3, alongside Goons, Dutch Schultz and Parapa Palace. Stream ‘Rush of Blood’ below. Artwork by Stuart Bell.

  • Track Record: Laura Ann Brady

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Dublin dark ambient folk singer-songwriter Laura Ann Brady is our latest willing subject for Track Record, a regular feature in which we delve into the prized record collections of some of the country’s finest creative minds. Dublin dark ambient folk singer-songwriter Laura Ann Brady Photos by Abi Denniston. Leonard Cohen – New Skin for Old Ceremony Leonard is a hero of a man and this is one of my favourite Cohen albums, which Leonard himself calls a little gem rather than a masterpiece. There is a much bigger sound going on here than on his previous recordings. Lots of lovely woodwind…

  • Belfast Music Club Presents: Tiago

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of the latter’s absolutely free show at Belfast’s Lavery’s on Sunday at 3pm (June 28), Mark Manley from Belfast Music Club profiles globetrotting, legendary Lisbon DJ Tiago. ___ Tiago’s arrival in Belfast is very much an indulgence. I hate the term “DJ’s DJ”  as it’s so clichéd but in this instance it’s never been more true. He is one of Tim Sweeney’s favourite DJs, loved by James Murphy, and famous for his genre-spanning, marathon, seven-hour-plus DJ sets at his residency in Lux, a Lisbon club whose interior was designed by John Malkovich. Before I heard him play, everyone I…

  • Watch: Niamh Murphy – We’re No Armies

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Cork songstress Niamh Murphy AKA Foxglove is one of those artists who just instantly commands a song from the moment her vocals enter into the music. Featuring a suitably phantasmal video by David Nelligan, the beautifully elegiac, chamber-pop tale that is ‘We’re No Armies’ is a perfect example of this seemingly effortless knack in action. Photo by Emma Jervis.