• Irish Tracks of the Week – February 12th

    February 12, 2021 - By 

    Here are the very best Irish tracks released this week, featuring Dani Larkin, étáin, Anna’s Anchor, Gavin Da Vinci, Daithi, Cherym, Teishi-1, Amerik with Gareth Dunlop and more. étáin – bone house Dani Larkin – Love Part Three Anna’s Anchor – Thomond Bridge Cherym – Kisses On My Cards Kisses on My Cards by CHERYM Daithi – An Irish Goodbye Gavin Da Vinci – Superman SUPERMAN by GavinDaVinci Teishi-1 – Haptic 3 Acid Break Haptic 3 Acid Break by Teishi-1 Aeons – Smile Amerik w/ Gareth Dunlop – Olive SHOCKS – Crocodile Tears Pretty Happy – Salami

  • Monday Mixtape: Loner Deluxe

    February 8, 2021 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his third album next month, Galway’s Loner Deluxe aka Keith Wallace (also founder of independent label Rusted Rail) guides us through his all-time favourite songs from Nico, Can, Mercury Rev, Silver Jews, Neu! and more Loner Deluxe’s Field Recordings is released on March 5th Mercury Rev – Frittering   I’ve loved this song for so long that when I heard Cian Ó Cíobháin play it recently on air on his An Taobh Tuathail radio show on RnaG I nearly levitated off the couch. This song and its parent album turn 30 this year and I’ve…

  • Pillow Queens Sign to Sub Pop

    February 10, 2021 - By 

    Pillow Queens have signed a publishing deal with legendary Seattle label Sub Pop. The Dublin indie-rock quartet, who released their debut album, In Waiting, last year, announced the news via social media. “Very excited to announce that we’ve just signed a deal with Sub Pop Publishing,” they said. “We’re over the moon that our album is getting recognition we couldn’t have even dreamed of when we decided to self release during a pandemic but we’re really feeling the love.” Sub Pop initially rose to prominence in the late 1980s via acts such as Nirvana, Mudhoney and Soundgarden. Since then, the…

  • Cork Venue The Kino Has Closed

    February 2, 2021 - By 

    Much-loved Cork venue The Kino has permanently closed. The news was revealed today by Cork promoters and venue operators The Good Room, who took the lease of the performance and event venue in September 2019. Speaking about the closure of the space, located on Washington Street, The Good Room said, “Unfortunately we’ve made the difficult decision to close the Kino for good. We had come to a new agreement with the landlord recently to stay until the end of the summer. But due to the latest government extension of level 5 restrictions, we feel that it will likely be June or July…

  • Premiere: Nylophone – Shy One

    January 27, 2021 - By 

    Wicklow-based artist Niall Woods aka Nylophone marked his arrival last year with well-received singles ‘Summer Feeling’ and ‘Let’s Go Driving’. A few months on, Woods has returned with ‘Shy One’, a deftly-produced dose of indie-folk whose lyrics are based off W.B Yeats’ ‘To an Isle in the Water’. It’s an approach that works wonders here. Featuring finger-picked guitar by Jonny Dillon aka Automatic Tasty and percussion/production by TTA favourite Rian Trench of Solar Bears & Panik Attaks, it’s a wonderfully bucolic offering that, in Woods’ own words, centres on “a longing and a desire to escape from something or somewhere.” Have a first listen…

  • Premiere: An Cárthach – ARBATAX

    January 27, 2021 - By 

    An Cárthach is the music-making moniker of Cork beatmaker and producer Diarmait Mac Cárthaigh. Arriving off the back of debut mixtape Grand In General, which was released at the tail-end of last year, ‘Arbatax’ doubles up as a slick and neatly understated re-introduction to an artist carving out a niche in a thriving South West solo scene. Featuring Brian Dunlea (Moken Troll) on bass, and by a video courtesy of The Lawd Mayor Colm Walsh, it’s a self-proclaimed “goat-inspired” instrumental named for the Sardinian village where much of the video footage was shot. Ahead of new material in the coming months, have…

  • Premiere: Gaze is Ghost – Wild Geese/Feather and Bone

    January 26, 2021 - By 

    We’re calling it now: 2021 is the year of Gaze is Ghost. The recording moniker of Northern Irish musician Laura McGarrigle, the project saw TTA favourite Keith Mannion aka Slow Place Like Home and Casey Miller get on board back in 2018. Two years on, the trio offer up two carefully-woven, wonderfully ruminative gems. Inspired by the “fragile beauty” of the Scottish coastline where McGarrigle currently live, ‘Wild Geese’ is equal parts gossamer and quietly defiant, McGarrigle’s cyclical patterns and recurring refrain of “I’ll try to do better” doubling as a mantra for future days. The full band ‘Feather and Bone’,…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – January 22nd

    January 22, 2021 - By 

    After a relatively fallow couple of weeks there, here’s the very best Irish tracks released this week, featuring Myles Manley, Sal Dulu, Uladh + Joshua Burnside, A Smyth, Tolu Makay, This Ship Argo, Rory Nellis, The Gauze, Lauren Bird and more Sal Dulu – Girl Sal Dulu · Girl Myles Manley – Shiteshow This Ship Argo – Hiding Like a Coward In The Smoke Always the Bees: Never the Honey by This Ship Argo New Pagans – Christian Boys Kieran O’Brien – Arms Open Without End by Kieran O’Brien Joshua Burnside – The Only Thing I Fear (Uladh remix) The…

  • Monday Mixtape: Maija Sofia

    January 25, 2021 - By 

    Galway singer-songwriter Maija Sofia talks us through some of her all-time favourite songs, featuring Kate Bush, Planxty, Katie Kim, Joni Mitchell and more. Katie Kim – Pause I keep coming back to Katie Kim’s 2012 album Cover & Flood since watching her collaboration with Radie Peat. It’s such a special record to me, I came to it as a teenager and deeply fell in love with its strange, ghostly world of genuinely amazing songwriting and murky, deep sea drones and reverbs. I’m such a Katie Kim fan it’s almost embarrassing, and this song literally makes me cry, I keep going…

  • Premiere: Boyfrens – Kiss Dance Sweat Move

    January 21, 2021 - By 

    The songwriting and production project of Dublin-based artist Jack Hevey, the music of Boyfrens strikes a slick midpoint between tightly-produced electronica & synth-pop, threaded with deft elements of hip-hop and R&B. Having launched in 2019 while he was completing a Musicology MA in Amsterdam, Hevey on new, the forward-pushing electro-pop gem ‘Kiss, Dance, Sweat, Move’. Speaking about the track, Hevey said, “‘Kiss, Dance, Sweat, Move’ was written and recorded with dimly lit dance floors and cramped smoking areas in mind, where the freedom to brush up against one another, touch, groove and embrace hasn’t been lost. The track meditates on one…