• Stream: An Taobh Tuathail Vol. 8

    Make absolutely no bones about it: An Taobh Tuathail on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta has long been something of an institution here in Ireland. Presented by the tireless Cian Ó Cíobháin, the long-running underground radio show – which broadcasts midweek on the Casla-based Irish-language radio service – has cemented that reputation with a series of compilations comprising some ATT favourites of the time. Arriving 10 years after the first collection on CD, Vol 8 – which is available via Spotify below – is 60 tracks in length, traversing electronica, folk, psychedelia, ethereal R&B & neo-classical in typically refined and informed fashion. As…

  • Watch: Loner Deluxe – Summer Song

    The music-making moniker of Galway indie maestro and Rusted Rail founder Keith Wallace AKA Loner Deluxe is an appellation that strongly hints at the willfully – and wonderfully – introspective nature of his craft. Conjuring the likes of early-to-mid 90s era material on Slumberland, Misplaced Music and Fluff Records via a prism of Beta Band, Grandaddy and hints of Nick Drake, new single ‘Summer Song’ is a blithe, lo-fi instrumental taken from both the recent Loner Deluxe/A Lilac Decline split, as well as the new Loner Deluxe album, Songs I Taped Off The Radio. Stream and/or order that on cassette here. Shot in…

  • Watch: Comfy Coffin – Content as a Cog

    The self-proclaimed “lonely one man band” of Utrecht-based Wicklow man Bobby Mink, the music of Comfy Coffin stems from a place slap-bang between instantly accessible and brilliantly left of center. New single ‘Content as a Cog’ finds Milk – who is currently seeking a drummer in the Amsterdam area – in inspired form, layering everything from harp and squeezebox over fuzzed-out guitar and bass to deliver a track bursting with real alt-pop finesse and resourcefulness. Better still, the video kicks several shades of ass. Have a peek.

  • First Delegates and Ticket Info Announced for Hard Working Class Heroes 2017

    Ahead of its return to Dublin across September 28-30, Hard Working Class Heroes have announced the first wave of delegates and ticket information for its fifteenth outing. As well as featuring live showcases throughout the city across the three days and nights, the weekend will, as ever, see a mixture of workshops, discussions, and panels take place, featuring a wide array of bookers, labels, managers, music supervisors and journalists from around the world, as well as home. Amongst the first delegates announced are Adam Ryan of the Great Escape, Casper Mills of SXSW, Sarah Besnard of ATC, Lisa Hresko of A2IM and…

  • Video Premiere: Floating Ballroom – Wolf Call

    Tipperary’s Joe Geaney AKA Floating Ballroom has been popping up in all the right places recently via his latest single ‘Wolf Call’. A gentle electro trip of disembodied vocals, skittering melodies, cut-up piano and nicely layered percussion, the single now comes accompanied with visuals whose ethereal, haunting quality matches the tone of Geaney’s electronic tropes perfectly. Have a first look below.

  • Pussy Riot Announce Dublin and Belfast Shows

    Five years on from their highly-reported performance at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Russian feminist protest punk rock group Pussy Riot have announced they will play shows in Ireland later this year. Riot Days – which accompanies band member Maria Alyokhina’s written memoir of the same name – is a show directed by Russian theatre director Yury Muravitsky that traces the story of the band’s notorious guerilla protest and what followed in the aftermath. Marrying punk, electronica, theatre, documentary footage and protest, the show will stop off at Dublin’s Button Factory on Thursday, November 23 and Belfast’s Mandela Hall…

  • Lineup Announced For Dublin Quays Festival

    With its aim of “providing a programme of events that catches the imagination of the public, while also giving artists and emerging talent a platform to engage with along the river” Dublin Quays Festival has announced its lineup for its inaugural outing across August 17-20. Taking place in The Workmans Club, The Sound House, The Liquor Rooms, The Grand Social, The Wiley Fox, Sin E and Bagots Hutton, the free, four-day music, art and spoken word festival will host the following in the aforementioned Liffey-bordering venues: Old Hannah, Cat Dowling, Birds Of Olympus, Maria Kelly, Fiction Peaks, Kelly-Anne Byrne, Super…

  • Sunn O))) @ Limelight 1, Belfast

    If comedian Martin Mull’s much-misappropriated saying “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture” holds any weight, attempting to sum up the equally ecstatic and obliterating experience of witnessing Sunn O))) at their most potent feels a bit breakdancing about brutalism or trying to riverdance about Mycenaean revivalism. Trickier still, trying to make anything resembling a few vaguely coherent mental notes for the purpose of this review (which, for this writer, proves an experiential trek veering between total oblivion and wildly fluctuating interior monologue) is a laughable prospect – the tripped-out, coeliac plexus-crushing equivalent of the tail trying to wag the dog.…

  • Keeping It Old School: An Interview with Paul Kane of Over The Hill Collective

    Having grown in leaps and bounds over the last seven years, Over The Hill is a music collective based at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre aimed at mature musicians but open to everyone. Brian Coney chats to founder Paul Kane about its foundations and development, as well as why it’s a crucial link in bridging music, community and the older generation. Hi, Paul. First thing’s first: how did the Over The Hill collective first come about? It started about seven years ago. When I first walked in the doors here at Oh Yeah Music Centre I had just changed careers and…

  • Watch: Pillow Queens – Rats

    Having self-released the debut EP, Calm Girls, back in December, Dublin pop-punk band Pillow Queens have been growing in momentum over the last few months. Coinciding with their first UK tour, the four-piece have unveiled the DIY video to their new single, ‘Rats’. According to the band, the video “takes place on the set of a radical left queer educational programme for children. Despite being severely underfunded and under-rehearsed the show goes on, their aim being to enlighten the youth of Ireland to the wonderful world of leftist politics. Hosted by Snotsey-May Darcy and co-hosted by resident artist Síle O’Surelook…