• Dan Deacon w/ Meltybrains @ Roisin Dubh, Galway

    July 21, 2016 - By 

    The other night as I was walking through Galway on the way to see Dan Deacon and Meltybrains? as part of this year’s International Arts Festival I passed a busker playing acoustic folk tunes to a fairly sizeable crowd. He sounded pretty alright, one of the many street performers that liven up the town’s streets at this time of year, putting smiles (or just triggering quick glances) on the faces of passers by, tourist or local. Awkwardly enough though, he was failing to get any more than a restrained, flappy clap-along during his attempt at crowd participation. Audience interaction is…

  • Watch: Talos – Your Love Is An Island

    July 14, 2016 - By 

    After a weekend that saw Cork’s Eoin French AKA Talos perform with his band in the unique and magnificent concert setting of the Mitchelstown Caves, the Feel Good Lost artist has just revealed the video for brand new track ‘Your Love is an Island’. The song, a ballad which follows the trajectory Talos has been on since his 2014 debut ‘Tethered Bones’, features subtle, crisp acoustic guitars, warm keys and plenty of ambient backdrops for French’s brittle, captivating vocals.  There are elements that seem cut from the same ambient cloth as MMOTHS Luneworks and Sigur Rós‘ Valtari, but there remains a folk sensibility to it that keep French’s lyrics and…

  • Variant Sea – Fable

    July 8, 2016 - By 

    Having formed less than a year ago, Dublin based neo-classical project Variant Sea have been quick to lure listeners into the realm of their delicate, cinematic compositions. Their debut EP Seasons of the Mist was an impressive introduction with plenty of Ludovico Einaudi inspired piano motifs and guitar backdrops a lá This Will Destroy You‘s Tunnel Blanket. Now, only nine months after their debut, the duo comprised of pianist Luke Duffy and guitarist Shell Dooley have returned with Fable, an EP that shows us musicians engaging in gradual growth. While the format of the music has remained the same, the impact of influences and the individual confidence presented…

  • EP Stream: Dandy’s Loft – Introspector

    June 30, 2016 - By 

    Forming roughly three years ago, Lurgan/Belfast group Dandy’s Loft have spent their formative years finding their sea legs and patiently writing and scrapping and re-writing music before finding a sound that they felt warranted release. This patience has proved to be massively beneficial to the four-piece as it has led to the release of a debut EP of four very accomplished tracks, the stylistic foundation of which lies on the likes Interpol and Radiohead as much as it does on that early 00’s glooming folk-rock sound. Introspector‘s four tracks veer from the throbbing bass, plucked strings and vocal harmonies of ‘Begging Your Pardon’…

  • Watch: Trick Mist – Crumbs Abound

    June 22, 2016 - By 

    Irish native, Manchester based Gavin Murray AKA Trick Mist  returns this month with a new split 7″ release, his first since his debut EP Jars in Rows landed last October. ‘Crumbs Abound’ follows on from the dark, metallic electronic backdrops of Jars, introducing a desert folk guitar motif to the mix, giving further depth to Murray’s gravelly baritone. The other side of the release features a track from fellow Irish musician Video Blue.  To coincide with the track, the video for ‘Crumbs Abound is a stark, abstract piece by director Graham Patterson. Trick Mist and Video Blue will play Whelan’s this Saturday the 25th of June with support from Participant. Further…

  • Premiere: DIVAN – Sale of Lakes

    June 21, 2016 - By 

    Formed out of the need to explore new territory away from their other projects, Dublin imports DIVAN, made up of members of Ambience Affair and Tomorrows have found a new lease of life on their forthcoming album Modern Knowledge. Produced by Ramona Falls, Menomena and EL VY man Brent Knopf, expect the album to be one rich with depth and melody. Brian Coney chatted to the band about their formation and their ethos. Listen to ‘Sale of Lakes’ below. Hi guys. First up, for those completely new to you, can you give us a bit of background to the formation of the…

  • Inbound: Elephant

    June 16, 2016 - By 

    With a busy few months ahead of him, including the release of new single ‘Stay With Me’ and a slot at Body & Soul at the weekend, Dundalk-based multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke AKA Elephant is an artist carving out his own wonderfully inimitable path. Eoin Murray chats to him about his debut LP, Hypergiant, new stirrings and what it means to be a musician beyond the city. Since Hypergiant came out last October what have you been up to? Well I spent the end of last year gigging the album around. I decided at the beginning of this year to take a wee break…

  • Lisa Hannigan announces new album ‘At Swim’. Debuts ‘Prayer for the Dying’

    June 8, 2016 - By 

    Today saw the unveiling of the first track to be heard from Lisa Hannigan’s forthcoming third LP At Swim. The new record, produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, follows on from Hannigan’s 2011 triumph Passenger. Struggling to write material for a new album while living sporadically divided between London and Dublin and being involved in myriad other projects, At Swim began to come to life once Dessner contacted her suggesting they collaborate. The album approaches ideas of homesickness and of being adrift in a sea of isolation but just as elegantly handles themes of love in ways that only Lisa Hannigan can. ‘Prayer for the Dying’…

  • Overhead, The Albatross – Learning to Growl

    June 1, 2016 - By 

    A lot of people will tell you that Post-Rock had its day about five years ago, that those who have kept the torch burning the brightest are the just the ones who held it aloft in the first place, and that all the rest have merely fallen by the wayside or been left dragging their heels through the faux-sentimental, desperately “cinematic” mud. In a lot of ways they would be right I suppose. More bands than you can count dabbled in that realm of tremolo picked, delayed guitars and the“quiet bit/heavy bit” structure, to the point where a listener could…

  • Gold Panda – Good Luck and Do Your Best

    May 31, 2016 - By 

    2010 was a bizarre time to be a producer of electronic music. At the advent of the bedroom producer and a period when Youtube channels like Majestic Casual were oversaturating our ears with sugary “chill” electronica – or whatever the heck it was called – it was a time in which one track could come to define an artist far too early into their musical career, long before they were in a position to be defined at all. Luckily, a number of artists managed to break free from the labelling and pigeonholing that coincided with having a Youtube “hit” around…