• Stream: James Joys – A Constellation Of Bargained Parts

    March 6, 2019 - By 

    For any number of avertible reasons, there are criminally underrated artists sprawled right across the island of Ireland, and none more than James Joys. The Belfast composer, musician and producer (real name James Thompson) is someone whose emphatic, masterfully-woven craft operates “somewhere between the concrète and the kinetic.” A Constellation Of Bargained Parts takes that particular turn-of-phrase and transmits it as a full-blown reality. Teaming up with the Codetta Choir and vocalist Peter Devlin – who Joys also makes music with via the guise of the exceptional Ex-Isles – the musician spans choral, electroacoustic, postmodern classic and electronic worlds to deliver five powerful “modern lamentations” that,…

  • 19 for ’19: TAU

    March 6, 2019 - By 

    We continue 19 for ’19, our feature looking at Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2019, with Berlin-based Irish artist Shaun Mulrooney aka TAU. Photo by Brian Mulligan Though it’s early days, come December, you’ll almost certainly find the second album from Berlin-based Irish musician Shaun Mulrooney aka TAU featuring high in myriad end-of-year lists. The follow-up to 2016’s TAU TAU TAU – a release whose recording started on the day Bowie died – TAU & The Drones Of Praise sprung forth last month as a sorcerous statement of intent. The genre-mangling psych experimentalism of TAU (who, with Mulrooney at…

  • Video Premiere: Jake Regan – Over It

    March 5, 2019 - By 

    On Friday night, the packed-out downstairs venue of Dublin’s International Bar played host the first ever music video exhibition by C-47. As well as delivering a stellar debut solo set on the night, Dublin singer-songwriter’s Jake Regan’s ‘Over It’ proved a highlight among the various videos that were screened. Produced by C-47, directed and edited by John D Breen, produced by M.A.K and featuring cinematography by Helton Nóbrega, the video – which features Regan and Eilish Malon from Girlfriend among others – was shot on Wicklow beaches and in the Dublin mountains over two days. While many will know Regan from Dublin band Segrasso, ‘Over It’…

  • Stream: Kyoto Love Hotel – The Shapes That Bond You

    March 5, 2019 - By 

    Marrying sublime autotuned vocals with balmy synth-pop production, ‘The Shapes That Bond You’ finds Tipperary duo Joe Geaney and Laura Sheary aka Kyoto Love Hotel confidently expand upon their increasingly distinctive brand of woozy nocturnalism. Doubling as the duo’s strongest single effort to date – and one of the Irish singles of the year thus far – it’s a brisk and nuanced gem that instantly demands a repeated listen. Keep up to date with Kyoto Love Hotel here.

  • Stiff Little Fingers Set For Belfast and Dublin Shows

    March 4, 2019 - By 

    Belfast punk legends Stiff Little Fingers will play two Irish shows in August. The Jake Burns-fronted quartet will play Dublin’s Academy on Friday, August 23 and Belfast’s Custom House Square – alongside New Model Army, Therapy?, The Toy Dolls and a DJ set from Terri Hooley – on Saturday, August 24. Ticket go on sale this Friday at 10am, priced €25 and £27 respectively.

  • Premiere: Slyrydes – Mental Health

    March 1, 2019 - By 

    We’re pleased to present a first look at the video for the debut single from Galway band Slyrydes. A self-proclaimed “frank take on the shambolic Irish Health Service”, ‘Mental Health’ is a potent and necessary first offering from the quartet. It’s something the video, which you can view below, taps into to and then some. This is vital music from a band we’re sure are destined for big things in 2019 and beyond. Slyrydes play Galway’s Roisin Dubh on March 23 and Dublin’s Grand Social on March 29.

  • A Turn Up For The Book: An Interview with VerseChorusVerse

    February 27, 2019 - By 

    Last year, Belfast-based, North Coast musician and singer-songwriter Tony Wright aka VerseChorusVerse took the leap. It’s one that few musicians ever get around to but for some, Wright including, writing about his life seemed to stem from a kind of cosmic duty; as a means to both memorialise and give literary content to a remarkable life lived. Luckily, it seems that Tony Wright, despite everything, is only getting started. To call Chapter & Verse(ChorusVerse) a page-turner would be doing it a disservice. As anyone who has delved into the author’s music – or caught him live – can attest, he’s every bit the born fabulist. Recounting…

  • Kate Tempest and Princess Nokia Among First Names Announced for Body & Soul

    February 26, 2019 - By 

    Kate Tempest and Princess Nokia are among the first names announced to play this year’s Body & Soul. Returning to Ballinlough Castle in Co. Westmeath across June 21-23, the annual Irish summer festival will also play host to The Blaze, Talos, SOAK, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Dream Wife, Modeselektor, Coely and Kiddy Smile, Santi Gold, Baikal, Monolink, The Drifer, Oshun, Mano Le Tough, Wyvern Lingo, Laoise, Tulla Céilí Band, whenyoung, The Murder Capital, Meltybrains?, Thumper, Niamh Regan, Lil’ Dave and The Clockworks. The first announcement was made in the Big Romance in Dublin this evening. Many more acts are to be announced. Tickets…

  • Watch: Robyn G Shiels – Black Moon (Arvo Party Remix)

    February 26, 2019 - By 

    Taken from one of the Irish releases of last year, the five-track Death of the Shadows, ‘Black Moon’ found Kilrea singer-songwriter Robyn G Shiels‘ funereal folk craft stripped back to a plaintive, five-minute ode. It was a fitting curtain call for an EP that doubly confirmed the Belfast-based musician as one of the most incisive songwriting voices around. Three months on, Herb Magee aka Arvo Party has given the song the remix treatment. And how it comes off: leaning into the innate spaciousness and yearnful quality of the original, Magee’s inspired washes of ambience and decay reveal a whole new character to Shiels’…