• Exclusive: Stream Three Record Store Gay Tracks

    April 17, 2015 - By 

    Fast becoming an Irish music institution Dublin’s Record Store Gay has some obvious added import this year ahead of the forthcoming Marriage Referendum. Now in its fourth year, the self-proclaimed celebration of music and diversity will host a mini-music festival, poster exhibition and pop-up music shop for international Record Store Day tomorrow at Dublin’s Outhouse LGBT Community Resource Centre. Hosted in association with Little Gem Records, the annual Record Store Gay CD covers compilation will also be released on the day, featuring some excellent tracks from the likes of Hi Fashion, Kate’s Party, I Heart The Monster Hero, Florence Olivier, Katherine Lynch…

  • 12 Points festival

    April 16, 2015 - By 

    Running from April 15-18 at Dublin’s Project Arts Centre, 12 Points Festival will showcase 12 young European jazz ensembles, creating a unique networking opportunity for its participants. The schedule for this year’s outing – featuring the likes of Black Dough, Virta, Auditive Connection and Moskus –  is both impressively varied and extremely inviting for first-time attendees. Hit up the 12 Points Festival page here to check out the full line-up and to buy tickets.

  • Premiere: Swimmers – Body Ahernia

    April 15, 2015 - By 

    A week on from the release of stellar debut track, ‘Lose Myself’, Dublin band Swimmers have given us an exclusive first look at the video for its equally impressive follow-up, ‘Body Ahernia’. According to Niall Jackson from the band, it is “a track about getting death out of the way in order to enjoy living. The sooner we all die the sooner we can stop worrying about it, so I died a few years ago and have had a ball since. The title track is a tribute to the late Bobby Aherne who isn’t dead at all but rather instilling a very…

  • Stream: And So I Watch You From Afar – Redesigned A Million Times

    April 15, 2015 - By 

    A few days on from playing new material to a handful of fans and friends at a secret show in Belfast, And So I Watch You From Afar are streaming the triumphant ‘Redesigned A Million Times’. Taken from their new album, Heirs, is track has a distinctly more linear, pop-centric feel to previous material, whilst maintaining some of the classic hallmarks of the Northern Irish quartet’s sound. ASIWYFA play Dublin’s Olympia on June 19 and Belfast’s Mandela Hall on June 20 as part of a massive European tour. Go here to win tickets to the former show.

  • Watch: SOAK – Blud

    April 15, 2015 - By 

    With her debut album, Before We Forgot How To Dream, set for release via Rough Trade on June 1, SOAK has unveiled the video for ‘Blud’. Capturing different aspects of the Derry’s artist’s recent skatepark tour and more, the release is the second version of the video, the first, pre-Rough Trade video being released last year. Win tickets to SOAK’s Belfast show at the Empire on June 10 here.

  • I Am The Cosmos Set for Belfast Debut

    April 16, 2015 - By 

    Dublin electronic duo Cian Murphy and Ross Turner AKA I Am The Cosmos have announced their debut Belfast show on Saturday, May 23. The pair will play the free-entry Chromatic at the new-fangled Woodworkers. Choosing to make rare live appearances and having signed a deal with Faber Music, IATC are working on a follow-up album in Dublin’s National Concert Hall as part of the Artists in Residence project. Establishing itself as one of the city’s finest regular gig nights, Chromatic has already played host to Girls Names, Sleep Thieves, Jape, Go Wolf and Sleep Thieves. Photos by Dorje De Burgh.

  • Sea Sessions Announce New Acts

    April 14, 2015 - By 

    Ireland’s self-proclaimed “biggest beach party”, Sea Sessions returns to Bundoran from Friday 19 to Sunday June 21. Joining the likes of already-confirmed acts including Seasick Steve, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Le Galaxie, Jape and R.S.A.G. are new additions The Riptide Movement, Black Grape, Interskalactic, Little Hours, The Whereabouts, The Winters and Half of Me. Ray O’Donoghue, Festival Director says, “We’re thrilled with the latest announcement. The Riptide Movement are one of the hottest live acts out there and Shaun Ryder’s Black Grape have a 20th anniversary tour happening. This will be his second time at Sea Sessions. Alongside all the great…

  • Premiere: Robocobra Quartet – Wicker Bar

    April 14, 2015 - By 

    Set for release on April 21, Bomber by Belfast’s Robocobra Quartet captures a band whose brilliantly burgeoning sound gets more engrossing and self-assured with each release. Following on the heels of agog lead single ”80-88′, the brief but burrowing ‘Wicker Bar’ is a more inward-looking, abstracted affair, the band’s drummer/vocalist Chris Ryan meditating on backwashed thoughts and distant scenes, relaying beat-inflected stylings over dancing sax and a floating, spectral vocal ensemble courtesy of Patrick Gardiner. Sub-titled “four songs about three people, two novels, a failed assassination attempt and a volunteer-run community arts space” the EP was recorded by Ryan at Belfast’s Start Together…

  • Watch: Villagers – Everything I Am Yours

    April 13, 2015 - By 

    Showing one man’s sad spiral of rejection on city streets, Villagers’ video for ‘Everything I Am Yours’ is a harrowing yet remarkably touching supplement to one of the highlights from their new album, Darling Arithmetic. Directed by Jeremy Thraves – responsible for videos for the likes of Radiohead’s Just, Blur’s Charmless Man and Sam Smith’s Stay With Me – the video cuts between the aforementioned struggle – one man’s desire for love and to be loved – and footage of Conor O’Brien performing the song on guitar, drums and piano. Make sure to check out our main interview feature with O’Brien in the current issue of…