• Marissa Nadler – Strangers

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    In the lead up to the release of her seventh LP Strangers, the second to be released on Sacred Bones/Bella Union, Marissa Nadler welcomed interviewers into her apartment instead of having features built on distant phone-calls or coffee shop meetings . This willingness to allow the external into the internal, the welcoming of outsiders into the most sacred and personal of spaces is something that plays heavily into this album. Moving from the highly introspective lyricism that has defined her previous releases, Nadler it seems has now taken to bringing the influence of others, be they strangers or best friends,…

  • Stream: Majestic Bears – Does She Know?

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    Galway based folk trio Majestic Bears have been making audiences ‘ooo’ and ‘aaaa’ with modest consistency for the past while. While still in the early stages of their recording career, the group have displayed a knack for charming motifs and deft sincerity to keep the summery folk fan in all of us whistling all the way to the shops. Ahead of the release of their forthcoming EP on Citóg Records Julia in June, the group are premiering their track ‘Does She Know’ along with B-Side ‘The Devil’s in the Details’. Following from their 2014 release Poems Addressed to the Sea, their latest offering…

  • Mark Pritchard – Under the Sun

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    Over the course of two decades and with a myriad of monikers under the bridge, Mark Pritchard’s albums, short releases and collaborations have ventured from genre to genre with consistent zeal and originality. From his early ambient work with Tom Middleton as Global Communications to his equally dizzying veers into footwork, hip-hop, house, and grime, Pritchard’s music has been defined by its subtle complexity and shifts in identity and artistic base. Since 2013 however, Pritchard has settled for his releases being put out under his own name; something which, despite seeming like but a small change, has led to a…

  • Stream: R.S.A.G. – Leave A Light On

    May 11, 2016 - By 

    Jeremy Hickey aka Rarely Seen Above Ground aka R.S.A.G. is a musician native to Kilkenny whose music and live performances have for the past number of years, funnily enough, been mythologised as legendary in a very “underground” way. Since beginning to operate under the R.S.A.G. banner in 2008, Hickey has been nothing if not a elusive, from quietly releasing albums like his debut Organic Sampler and 2010’s Be it Right or Wrong to randomly unleashing tracks such as 2014’s infectiously driving ‘I’ll Be There‘. To catch him playing live is a spectacle to behold, watching him relentlessly attack his drum kit, never for a second…

  • Julianna Barwick – Will

    May 9, 2016 - By 

    In a recent interview with Clash, ambient musician and vocalist Julianna Barwick appeard preoccupied with the difficulty of feeling a sense of “home” anywhere, the challenge in finding a place where one can feel empowered and at ease. Travelling to upstate New York, away from her residence in Brooklyn, to work on her fifth album Will just left her craving civilisation. But Brooklyn’s relentless buzz wasn’t right either, and so the album ended up being finished in North Carolina. What we get in Will then is an album awash with luxurious keys and dizzying vocal loops that attempts to sonically provide…

  • EP Stream: Thran – At a Loss

    May 11, 2016 - By 

    Thran is the monicker of Belfast based electronic musician Ronan Scullion. Releasing his debut EP At A Loss on his own label imprint Nonchalant Recordings, Thran’s music has been a patient labour of love over the past couple of years, taking plenty of time before releasing his melodious, frosty electronica into the world. Blending elements of Trip-Hop, post-dubstep and hints of garage, the music could best be compared to the likes of Mount Kimbie, James Holden and Burial. There is an ambient, spacey quality to tracks such as ‘Retreat’ and the EP’s title track that could lead to comparisons being drawn with acts such as MMOTHS and God is an Astronaut.  With a…

  • Stream: Feather – Like No Other

    April 14, 2016 - By 

    The varying incarnations of Emma Garnett’s Feather project have featured casts of collaborations from multi-instrumentalist Ben ‘Bix’ McKenna (of Meltybrains?), afro-inflected musciains RiZa, iZem and Manden Express, to Come on Live Long‘s Louise Gaffney. In a similar way to her sister Loah, Garnett has been patient in her unveiling of music to the world, preferring to wait until something is as perfect and as ready as it can be before allowing it to be heard. Her latest offering, in collaboration with an eight-piece band, is the brand new single ‘Like No Other which is expected to be on an EP released…

  • First Acts Announced for Another Love Story 2016

    April 13, 2016 - By 

    Another Love Story returns to Killyon Manor for its third Summer Festival outing this August. Organised by Happenings and Homebeat the almost otherworldly festival promises terrific Irish and International live music and DJ sets, colourful instalments and plenty of room to explore. Today, the first round of acts have been announced for the weekend including Meltybrains? SlowPlaceLikeHome, Talos, Saint Sister, J.Cowhie, Beach, Variant Sea and more. Outside of music there will be talks, walks, cinema, theatre, yoga, Ching Gong, and a myriad of other elements aside from the music to lure you in. There will be more Irish and International live acts and DJs added…

  • Two Door Cinema Club @ Roisin Dubh, Galway

    April 10, 2016 - By 

    The last time I saw Two Door Cinema Club was at Oxegen 2011, at the peak of their remarkably fast climb to being the most hyped indie-pop band of the time… their drummer flung a drumstick into the crowd at the end and it hit me square in the eye. Aside from that painful memory however I do remember it being one of the most uplifting and downright fun gigs of the weekend. Still on the back of their spritely debut Tourist History and wildly successful singles ‘Undercover Martin’ and ‘What You Know’, the group of lads from Bangor seemed…

  • Bitchin Bajas & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties

    April 8, 2016 - By 

    The music of Will Oldham aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billie has always had a rusty quality to it, as if his songs were assembled with nuts and bolts that rattled as they moved, always slightly out of place yet somehow holding everything together. This has, by and large, lent to his previous releases having a consolatory quality, as if their rickety composition and his own quivering, fragile vocals provide some comforting projection of listeners’ most emotionally brittle, bare moments. That comforting aspect that has pervaded Oldham’s previous output has been given a far more meditative twist on his latest collaboration, one…