• Album Premiere: The 202s – From When The Future Was Yet To Hurt Us

    March 29, 2018 - By 

    Dublin’s The 202s will release their new album From When The Future Was Yet To Hurt Us tomorrow March 30 via Difference/Repetition. With a selection of brand new cuts, previously released singles and tracks from their superb 2017 EP, Up In Thin Air, this album feels like the culmination of two years worth of gradual graft from one of Ireland’s finest, most understated acts. Having reformed in 2016 after a lengthy spell away – real life stuff, “since we last made a record, The 202s have made five human beings!” – the trio have been steadily releasing tracks in anticipation of this album and now, as it lands,…

  • Room For Rebellion will host parties in three cities this Friday in aid of reproductive rights campaign

    March 20, 2018 - By 

    Irish “Political Party” Room For Rebellion will return this Friday 23rd March for three parties spread across three cities, all in aid of the Irish reproductive rights campaign. The parties will be held in The Black Box in Belfast, Jigwaw in Dublin and The Yard, Hackney Wick in London respectively, with each event featuring a superb line-up of female DJs. In Belfast, local DJ Venus Dupree will join Lisbon’s Violet in providing music all night long while at Dublin’s BYOB party in Jigsaw proceedings will be in the hands of Endrift, Eliza and NTS resident Moxie. For London’s party in Hackney…

  • Watch: Sandy Kim – Rabbit Hole

    February 7, 2018 - By 

    Young Dublin three-piece Sandy Kim have shared the video for their ew single ‘Rabbit Hole’. The indie rock/dream-pop trio formed in 2017 and recorded five tracks back in December. With plans to release a single a month, they’re off to a flying start with ‘Rabbit Hole’, a jangling guitar number reminiscent of DIIV, Sea Pinks and Ride with a bridge that comes from the side and brings a sort of galactic energy that God is an Astronaut would be proud of.  If this is the quality we’re to expect from this lot, then we have every reason to be quite excited we reckon.

  • Watch: All the Luck in the World – Contrails

    February 1, 2018 - By 

    All The Luck In The World are set to release their third album The Blind Arcade on February 23. The Berlin-based Irish trio formed in 2011 and have since developed quite the following both at home and abroad thanks to their brand of atmospheric, emotional alternative-folk and carefully crafted stories. ‘Contrails’ is the third track to be shared from the album and once again shows the band’s increasing maturity and dedication to their craft. Like ‘Landmarks’ and ‘Golden October’ before it, ‘Contrails’ invokes the likes of Frightened Rabbit, Mutual Benefit and Little Green Cars in its execution of a acoustic pop sensibilities without any corners cut…

  • Stream: O Emperor – Make It Rain

    January 29, 2018 - By 

    O Emperor are back with ‘Make It Rain’, their first new music in over two years. The Cork via Waterford five-piece have “[Emerged] from a sustained period of blurblobitude” with a sound that pushes forward the krautrock, afro-disco and psych leanings of their past two releases, 2015’s Lizard EP and 2013’s Vitreous LP. And about time too. Since their 2012 debut Hither Thither, the band – which, if you didn’t know, features one of our 18 for ’18 artists Phil Christie AKA The Bonk on vocals and piano – have steered further and further away from folkier territory and into more obscure realms. It was heard in the eerie krautrock of…

  • Watch: Loah – Unveiled

    January 27, 2018 - By 

    Loah has shared the video for ‘Unveiled’, taken from one of our top EPs of 2017, This Heart. Directed by Ellius Grace and choreographed by Jade O’Connor , the video stars Uchenna Chukwudinma and was filmed in London and The Sally Gap. The video seems to document a slow, determined odyssey toward freedom and space as Chukwudinma walks away from the bustling, suffocating city and into the windy majesty of nature to be welcomed by a small community’s embrace. It’s a perfect pairing with one of the most subtly affecting songs from This Heart, a stripped back affair with Loah’s voice being accompanied by the ever-wonderful Niwel Tsumbu who featured…

  • Album Stream: Sleep – Portals

    January 26, 2018 - By 

    Sleep is the alias of Dublin-based electronic artist Shane Cusack. A producer of vast, enchanted drones and ambient soundscapes, he recently released his debut mini-album Portals via the Urban Arts Berlin label. A richly textured collection, this five-track release is specifically designed to guide you into slumber when nothing else seems able to. On his regular midnight show on Dublin Digital Radio, Cusack produces an hour long mix exclusively to cater to the first hour of the sleep cycle. On Portals, he achieves something much the same, only this time the music is his own (naturally). Inspired by the likes of Wolfgang Voigt’s GAS, William Basinski and Alvin Lucier Cusack “explores a variety…

  • Watch: Kojaque – Bubby’s Cream [Prod. jar jar jr]

    January 26, 2018 - By 

    Kojaque has shared his first new music since last year’s raucous ‘Wificode’. The Dublin rapper/producer and founding member of the Soft Boy Records collective is in typically reflective, honest form on the gorgeous ‘Bubby’s Cream’, produced by fellow softboy Jar Jar Jr.  The single is taken from his forthcoming Deli Daydreams EP, set for release on 23 February which documents the week in the life of a deli worker. “The project meanders through the daydreams of KOJAQUE, the main protagonist, as he contemplates love, life and loneliness in the lead up to the annual work Christmas party,” the MC, real name Kevin Smith explains. “The…

  • Stream: Tayne – Sacrifice

    January 24, 2018 - By 

    London-based, Galway-native Matt Sutton AKA Tayne has shared his new single ‘Sacrifice’. Following last year’s ‘Heartbeat’, the former It Was All A Bit Black And White frontman, continues his ventures into the world of deranged electro-pop with this new venture, taking off a forthcoming EP. ‘Sacrifice’ is a song for those times when you want the sheen and melody of pop music but also feel like chucking a chair across a room. Savagery and distortion combed with vibrancy and gloss, Sutton is making music to suit fans of The Naked and Famous, All Tvvins or Carly Rae Jepsen‘s Emotion…provided you filtered those songs through a distortion pedal and…

  • AVA Festival announce Bicep, Or:la, Sunil Sharpe, Saoirse and many more for 2018 Edition

    January 24, 2018 - By 

    Belfast’s AVA Festival and Conference has announced the huge line-up for its fourth edition between 1 – 2 June 2018. While talks, panels and workshops will make the bulk of the first day of the festival, Friday 1 June, the Saturday will feature a huge cast of DJs sets and live performances spread across four stages. The legendary Boiler Room stage will run for two days this year while Red Bull Music Academy and Smirnoff will host two others. The line-up consists of some massive international acts such as Floorplan, Helena Hauff, Midland, Jayda G, Dennis Sulta, Hunee and Job Jobse. Not only that, but the Irish are very well represented with sets coming…