• Album Stream: Kevin Nolan – Absent At the Moment When He Took Up the Most Space (Selected Recordings 1997 – 2005)

    July 31, 2018 - By 

    A selection of recordings that he made between 1997 and 2005, Absent At The Moment When He Took Up The Most Space captures the genesis and creative metamorphosis of Dublin singer, composer and author Kevin Nolan. Comprising thirty-eight tracks, taken from an archive of over 150 recordings during this period, it’s palette-spanning, at times wonderfully inspired collection of music. With many songs clocking in at such over one minute in length – often more than enough time for Nolan to strike earworming gold – Nolan approaches Robert Pollard-like levels of fecundity, all while shapeshifting between downbeat folk musings, a cappella diversions, rock-pop gems…

  • Premiere: Yawning Chasm – Awful Blue

    July 30, 2018 - By 

    The solo moniker of Galway musician and one-half of Mirakil Whip, Aaron Coyne, Yawning Chasm has drip-fed the world some wonderfully ruminative, psych-tinged dream-folk over the last few years. His new album, Songs from Blue House  follows suit, and mines twelve cloistered and candid tales by way of baritone ukulele, four-string electric mandolin, keyboard and voice. Out now on Rusted Rail, the album was mostly self-recorded during a rainstorm in a shed. The album’s lead track, ‘Awful Blue’ is a brisk, major-keyed antidote to a minor-key preoccupation. Have a first peek at its suitably low-key visuals below. Stream/buy Songs From Blue House here.

  • Premiere: Hot Cops – Decay

    July 27, 2018 - By 

    On Monday (July 30), Belfast indie rock stalwarts Hot Cops will release Speed Dating, a five-track EP that compiles remastered versions of their singles to date. Doubling up as a quick primer of-sorts, the release holds up as an all-killer insight into why the Carl Eccles-fronted band are widely considered to be one of the country’s very best (a theory you may have noticed we’ve shared over the last few years.) The release’s lead track, ‘Decay’ has long been a live highlight for the band. A three-minute blast of fuzzed-out slacker-pop, it’s a full-blown celebration of ennui that finds relief in both simple admittance and its feedback-soaked closing…

  • Premiere: Oisin O’Scolai & The Virginia Slims – Join Me in The Ground

    July 27, 2018 - By 

    Hailing from Donegal, Derry-based artist Oisin O’Scolai is most certainly one to watch. Very accurately being dubbed by his label, Belfast’s Black Tragick Records, as “the Buncrana Beck” (alternatively “if Harry Nilsson was from Donegal” or a latter day Paul Westerberg if he hadn’t have got drunk with the Stinson brothers and started The Replacements”). Self-recorded and released as Oisin O’Scolai and the Virginia Slims, the stellar, slow-burning gothic-folk of ‘Join Me in the Ground’ was mixed Ben McAuley and sees O’Scolai wield subtlety and pathos like a scythe. Taken from his forthcoming debut album, Vacant Sea, the single comes yet more…

  • Premiere: Slouch – Petty Sounds

    July 25, 2018 - By 

    One of our must-see acts at this year’s KnockanStockan in Co. Wicklow this weekend, Dublin threesome Slouch are in a league of their own here when it comes to fuzzed-out, curveballing alt-rock that hits that rare sweet spot between scuzz, low-end groove, intricacy and abandon. A textbook case in point, brand new single ‘Petty Sounds’ – which we’re pleased to premiere below – will be familiar to anyone who has caught Conor Wilson, Kev Shannon and Malachy Burke live over the last couple of years. Littered with submerged arpeggios and eruptions of amp-choking noise, it’s the sound of walking through a…

  • Watch: Our Krypton Son – Falling In Love Is A Suicide Mission (Ryan Vail Mix)

    July 24, 2018 - By 

    A highlight from his critically-devoured second album Fleas & Diamonds, ‘Love Is a Suicide Mission’ by Derry artist Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son captures his elegiac, carefully-woven craft in under four minutes. Now, fellow Derry artist and producer Ryan Vail (pictured) has delivered his own curveballing take of the single, which was originally released back in May. Mining the track’s heart-rending melodic twists and turns, it evolves from skeletal, contorted electronica to a reveal a simmering, low-key dancefloor jam.  

  • Premiere: Eoin Dolan – Superior Fiction

    July 23, 2018 - By 

    The title cut from an EP that he will release at the end of August, ‘Superior Fiction’ is a self-proclaimed ode to truth” that finds Galway songsmith Eoin Dolan in particularly inspired form. Equally parts breezy and incisive, its forward-moving surf-pop sway melds woozy keyboard lines with a harmonic and lyrical sensibility that continue to make his lo-fi, sci-fi-tinted craft a joy to behold. Featuring Conor Deasy on guitar/backing vocals, James Casserly on drums and Adam Sheeran on bass, Superior Fiction was self-recorded, mastered by Fergal Davis and will be released in association with Citog Records. Have a first listen to its title track below.

  • Premiere: Girlfriend – Spitkissing/Small Smile Grow

    July 21, 2018 - By 

    Boasting one of the most compelling live shows around, Dublin alternative quartet Lahela Jones, Lisa Rogers, Hana Lamari and Sophie Dunne aka Girlfriend have gone from strength to strength over the last couple of years. New recorded material has been in the pipeline for some time, but some things are worth the wait. The follow-up to 2016’s 3AM Rituals, the foursome’s new double-single ‘Spitkissing/Small Smile Grow’ captures the heart, craft and intensity that is setting them apart in five blitzing minutes. While the former track is a harmony-driven, masterfully lo-fi paean to the private codes of intimacy, the latter effort is a fierce, fist-clenched…

  • Album Premiere: Elephant – 88

    July 20, 2018 - By 

    We’re pleased to present a first listen to 88, the second album from Dundalk artist and multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke aka Elephant. Released today, both digitally and on 12″ vinyl via Pizza Pizza Records, Clarke has called the album “a soundtrack to my childhood and young adult life.” From the gossamer folk-pop spell of opener ‘Summer’ to the album’s glitchy closer ‘All These Dragons’, Clarke brilliantly filters bygone times, Proustian moments and lucid epiphanies of the past through a lens that always see melody and – the album’s crowning achievement – his vocals take centre-stage. Speaking about the release – which is dedicated to the…

  • Premiere: Joshua Burnside – REarranged (Lyrics Video)

    July 23, 2018 - By 

    Last month, Belfast-based singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside released one of the Irish EPs of the year thus far, the understated and masterfully candid All Round The Light Said. ‘REarranged’ was a highlight from the release, and now the track has a brand new lyric video courtesy of Blue Americans‘ Kris Platt. A bold visual accompaniment featuring the uncanny transposition of archive footage, it reframes Burnside’s words, which mine memory backwashed thoughts like very few others can. Have an exclusive first look below.