• EP Premiere: David C Clements – My Dear Mother

    November 6, 2015 - By 

    David C Clements has always had an air of the mythical about him. An artist of pace and a craftsman of all but peerless repute in these parts, he has never dabbled in the kneejerk or haphazard, not least in his recorded output. With his highly-anticipated debut album, The Longest Day in History, set for release in early 2016, Clements has released a sampler of sorts in the form of My Dear Mother, a four-track EP that captures him at his most resolute. Speaking of the release, Clements said, “The idea with the My Dear Mother EP is to start introducing the new material…

  • Sound of Belfast 2015

    November 5, 2015 - By 

    With the events running from November 6-14 around the city, this year’s Sound of Belfast will culminate in the presentation of this year’s Oh Yeah Legend Award to The Divine Comedy at the NI Music Prize event at the Mandela Hall on November 14. The festivities include many exhibitions from local artists & filmmakers, as well as conferences and masterclasses at the Oh Yeah Centre. These include the Belfast Urban Affinity 2015, aimed at hard-to-reach youths, and the Breaking Into Music Youth Conference, featuring the likes of Phil Taggart, who quickly progressed from BBC Radio Ulster to Radio 1 in recent years. There’ll be also a…

  • Festival Mixtape: Metropolis

    November 5, 2015 - By 

    Set to make its grand inaugural appearance at RDS in Dublin this weekend, Metropolis boasts one of the most exciting line-ups for an Irish festival that we’ve seen in quite some time. With full information about times and acts available at their official website here, we have compiled a twenty track playlist featuring our must-see acts at the festival, including Giorgio Moroder (pictured), The Roots, Jamie xx, Le Galaxie and more.

  • Interview: Samantha Crain

    November 5, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of her show at Dublin’s Workman’s Club on Sunday, Oklahoma singer-songwriter Samantha Crain chats to Brian Coney about her stellar new album, Under Brand & Thorn & Tree, reclaiming music/art from upper class white men and the imprint of the likes of Jason Molina and David Bazan on her new material. Hi Samantha, Under Branch & Thorn & Tree is, for my money, one of strongest records of the year. There’s such a deep conviction to your words and how you wield them. Looking back, how did you go about writing lyrics what triggered inspiration? Thank you! The first song I wrote…

  • You Are Here @ Mart, Dublin

    November 4, 2015 - By 

    You Are Here – an exhibition of new works by three emerging artists, Christine Browne, Abigail Denniston and Sarah Edmondson – will launch at Dublin’s MART on Thursday, November 5. A provocative exploration into our current relationship with maps, both old and new, and the way technology allows us to navigate our way around the world based on our current location, the exhibition is a “A subjective and personal voyage into the art of map making, relishing in the lines, shapes, and scale of this picturesque language that we have depended on for centuries. A language that never claimed to…

  • Watch: Colm Mac Con Iomaire – Bláth (Flower)

    November 4, 2015 - By 

    Just over a month until his homecoming Christmas show with Lisa O’Neill at Dublin’s Vicar Street on December 17,  Colm Mac Con Iomaire has unveiled a video of him performing the brilliant ‘Bláth (Flower)’ live at Rockwood Music Hall, New York City. Filmed and edited by Shane G. Mahon, it’s a wonderfully captured performance that sees guitar, strings and piano weave a bewitching backdrop upon which footage of NYC on mute is overlaid. Frames’ member Mac Con Iomaire will play the following upcoming shows. November 11: St Pancras Old Church, London December 9: Empire Music Hall, Belfast December 17: Vicar St, Dublin

  • Watch: August Wells – Alice Dear Alice

    November 4, 2015 - By 

    Back in June, August Wells release what remains one of our favourite Irish tracks of the year, ‘Here In The Wild’. Summoning the pensive, reflective chamber pop of Richard Hawley and the gloriously elongated vocals of early Ian McCullough, the Ken Griffin-led outfit mustered a certain noir incantation that seemed simultaneously deeply familiar and thoroughly new-fangled. Four months on, following a string of Summer dates including an impressive Electric Picnic appearance – the band have unveiled ‘Alice Dear Alice’, a track that whilst following in the vein of ‘Here In The World’ is perhaps more akin to August single ‘Come On In Out Of That Night’…

  • Stream: Saint Sister – Castles

    November 3, 2015 - By 

    “My mother is lonely/My father speaks only to himself  My sister’s in danger/Her lover’s a stranger.” Undoubtedly the jewel in their lulling folk-pop crown, there’s a real immediacy poise to the lyrics of Irish Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntyre AKA Saint Sister. With their debut EP, Madrid, set for release via Trout Records on Friday, November 13, their latest single ‘Castles’ confines that intimate, instantly relatable savoir faire to four minutes of gossamer-like song, relaying succinct, unspoken truths of – perhaps unmistakably Irish – family life. Recorded in a short, purportedly “intense” session at Noise studio, Co. Kerry by Alex Ryan of Hozier, Madrid…

  • Album Premiere: Owensie – Dramamine

    November 3, 2015 - By 

    It’s not every day – or indeed week or month – an album like Dramamine is released into the world.  Set for release via stellar Limerick imprint Out On A Limb Records on Friday, November 13, the third studio album from Dublin songsmith Michael Owens AKA Owensie is a masterfully accomplished nine-track release of meditative, decidedly Autumnal folk-pop summing everyone from Department of Eagles, Sun Kil Moon circa Admiral Fell Promises and Kill Rock Stars-era Elliott Smith. Recorded in various indoor and outdoor locations across the country, using natural acoustics to create an instantly resonant sonic sojourn, there is a cunningly considered glory to the…

  • EP Stream: Conor Walsh – The Front

    November 3, 2015 - By 

    Dropping at the perfect time of year, The Front by Conor Walsh doubles up as a four-track soundtrack to those dark late afternoons and walks home guided by the glow and haze of streetlights and passing streams of strangers. Hailing from Swinford in Co. Mayo, Walsh’s piano and electro-acoustic minimalism wields understated repetition like a sword and that couldn’t be more emphatic on this beautiful new EP, out now via Ensemble Records.