• Premiere: Strength – The Crying Game (Record Store Gay)

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    One of our ones to watch in 2016, Derry’s Strength have really made their mark on the live circuit throughout the country over the last few months. Set to continue in that fashion with a show alongside Temper Drone at Whelan’s in Dublin on May 20, the Rory Moore-fronted outfit are also one of several Irish acts set to feature on this year’s Record Store Gay compilation, which is set for release – as ever – via the mighty Little Gem tomorrow (Friday, May 20). And what a cover they opted for: a synth-pop rendering of Dave Berry’s ‘The Crying Game’. A handful…

  • Premiere: Franklyn – Pleasure

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    Even if you’ve only had a passing interest in Northern Irish music™ over the last few years there’s a strong chance you’ll already be somewhat acquainted with Belfast quartet Franklyn. Three-quarters of the sadly departed General Fiasco, the Owen Strathern-fronted outfit recently re-animated in style with single ‘We Don’t Want To Live’, an emphatic debut track “about people having the life beaten out of them, feeling like there is nothing you can do to change, losing your fight and not even being that bothered about it.” An equally assured effort clocking in at under three minutes, new track ‘Pleasure’ effortlessly underlines the Belfast band’s mission to write a…

  • Watch: Saint Sister – Madrid

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    Having formed in 2014, Irish folk-pop duo Gemma Doherty and Mortan MacIntyre AKA Saint Sister have covered considerable ground recently. With their very well-received debut EP Madrid recorded in a short, “intense” session with Alex Ryan of Hozier, the release’s title track has been granted a sublime visual accompaniment courtesy of Bob Gallagher featuring lead Orla MacIntyre and some wonderfully rugged Irish countryside. Saint Sister play the following UK date in May. May 16: Gaslight Club, Leeds May 17: The Louisiana, Bristol May 18: The Islington, London May 20: The Green Door Store, The Great Escape Festival, Brighton (8pm) May 21: The…

  • Watch: StopTheWheel – ShakeUp

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    How many ‘Campfire R&B’ artists can you think of off the top of your head? It’s a curious sonic genus, after all, and one that appears to be exclusive to Italian avant-pop explorer StopTheWheel AKA Francesco Candura. Taken from the (we hope and pray) Danny-Glover-in-Lethal Weapon-referencing Too Old For This Shit – an EP which be released via Dublin’s Little Gem Records on Friday, May 20 – ‘ShakeUp’ is his latest single. Accompanied by a video by Gustav Willeit, it’s all a bit tUnE-yArDs meets Royal Trux, Candura’s pitched vocals, 4-track production and measured acoustic patterns merging to create something that can only be described as borderline dangerously catchy.

  • Premiere: SlowPlaceLikeHome – Tiger Lilly

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    Written, recorded, and produced in the forests of South Donegal, where all his previous releases have originated from, the new Double A-side single by Keith Mannion AKA SlowPlaceLikeHome reveals the workings of an artist constantly evolving his craft. Set for 10″ release on May 23, ‘Tiger Lilly/Friday’ sees Mannion move more toward the live setting with production. Where 8 minute B-side ‘Friday’ tells the tale of a self-styled magician and Coulrophobic called Friday, the former – which we premiere here – is a burrowing electro-pop gem that tells the story of reflective delinquency from the eyes of a night owl. Nice. SlowPlaceLikeHome play…

  • Video Premiere: Tuath – Existence is Futile

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    A self-described multilingual experimental, progressive psych rock/shoegaze band”, Donegal’s Tuath (or tribe in Gaelic) have quickly established themselves as one of the country’s most singular propositions. With a heavy-metal influenced rhythm section and hints of jazz fusion woven throughout their sound, they are far from in the business of seeking slick categorisation – a fact impressively confirmed on their forthcoming second EP. Set for digital release on June 15, the lead/title from Existence is Futile is a downtempo gem that sits somewhere between a lamenting Madlib instrumental and a trip-hop inspired Praxis jam. Directed by Raymond McBride, the track’s accompanying video proves a suitable hallucinatory backdrop here. Check out our…

  • Album stream: Overhead, The Albatross – Learning To Growl

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    Having formed back in hazy mists of time (2009), there’s something particularly gratifying seeing Dublin instrumental six-piece Overhead, The Albatross all but swamped with acclaim following the release their long-awaited debut album, Learning To Growl. Recorded at Clique Recordings and mixed by Phillip Magee, its nine tracks burst forth in masterful triumph, touchably impassioned and perfectly restless from opener ‘Indie Rose’ right up to ‘Big River Man’, a finale that serves as an emphatic full stop. Whilst many releases of this ilk is by its very nature necessarily “cathartic” (and not always with a degree of sophistication to warrant its nascency) OTA have bypassed formulaic rubric to forge their own brand of quite vital instrumentalism that demands your attention from the off.…

  • Watch: No Monster Club – Drinking at the Doldrums

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    With an opening theme sounding Metronomy jamming Daniel Johnston’s ‘Some Things Last A Long Time’ after one too many hours drifting on a carousel, ‘Drinking at the Doldrums’ is quintessential No Monster Club. Doubling up “the official No Monster Club video game – the world’s first ‘choose your own adventure’ moment in which you are given no options whatsoever” features NMC himself Bobby Aherne foraging and possibly getting a little lost in a forest. As for the track itself? You’ll be humming it for years. Probably.

  • Open Ear Festival

    May 16, 2016 - By 

    With the perfectly gallant promise of hosting “the best experimental music Ireland has to offer (and the occasional dance floor banger)” the inaugural Open Ear Festival takes place at the  scenic Sherkin Island off the coast of Cork this June Bank Holiday from June 3-5. Inspired in equal parts by the wealth of diverse electronic music talent in Ireland by other alternative festivals including Unsound in Krakow to Rathin off the coast of Antrim, the organisers hope Open Ear will “carve out a unique space in what is a crowded Irish festival landscape.” Making the mark from the off, this…

  • EP Stream: EVVOL – Physical L.U.V

    May 16, 2016 - By 

    Having spent the last few months holed up in their Kreuzberg studio, Berlin-based Irish-Australian duo EVVOL have unveiled what they have described as a “very personal” five-track EP, Physical L.U.V. The follow up to last year’s Eternalism – a masterful debut album brimming with dramatic nocturnalism – the new release builds on that momentum with brooding panache, majestic hooks and wonderfully wonky darkwave textures, documenting what the pair have called “the physical and emotional comforts and constraints of love”.