• Monday Mixtape: Glass Wings

    September 2, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of its release in October Belfast-based singer-songwriter Stephen Jones AKA Glass Wings reveals the artists and tracks that made an imprint on his forthcoming debut album, Everything and Nothing. I’m under no obligation to be cool in these choices right? Sit back and relax as I take you on a tour of some of the greatest melodicists who inspired me in the making of this album. Hiatus Kaiyote – By Fire I’m always a little suspect of people who say they have a favourite band. But if pressed, Hiatus Kaiyote might have it for me. I’ve been lucky enough…

  • EP Stream: Eoin Dolan – Superior Fiction

    August 28, 2018 - By 

    Released via Galway imprint Citog Records, Galway singer-songwriter Eoin Dolan’s new EP Superior Fiction is a four-track distillation of his yearning, sci-fi-tinged surf pop craft. Steeped in the imagery and atmosphere of a vintage seaside town, it confines within its minutes Dolan’s remarkable knack for marrying heartbreaking melodies and gentle instrumentation with the sadness and beauty of 1960s surf pop. Featuring an animated video created by Galway songsmith David Boland AKA New Pope, the EP’s lead single and title track – a self-proclaimed “ode to truth” marrying breezy, full-band balladry with Dolan’s incisive lyrics – is a perfect case in…

  • Watch: Arvo Party – D U S T

    August 11, 2018 - By 

    In July last year, Belfast electronic/ambient producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party arrived via his self-titled, Northern Irish Music Prize-nominated debut LP. Recorded and written in Belfast, Bangor, Bushmills, Denver, Strasburg, London, Holland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Dublin and far beyond, it was a carefully-crafted trip veering between drone, dense ambience, and shapeshifting electronica à la Wolfgang Voigt, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Tangerine Dream. Having bridged the gap with the sublime ‘Liberté ’ back in May, Magee is back with his strongest single effort to date, ‘D U S T’ . Marrying bushwacking beats and propulsive synth-bass with submerged vocals that sees…

  • Line-Up Unveiled For Hard Working Class Heroes 2018

    August 8, 2018 - By 

    Hard Working Class Heroes have revealed their line up for this year’s festival, taking place on September 27-29 across various venues in Dublin city centre including The Workman’s Club, Tengu, and The Grand Social. The 50 local acts announced in alphabetic order are: 1000 Beasts, A. Smyth, AE MAK, Alan Finan, Awkward Z, Bad Bones, Beauty Sleep, Bicurious, Brenna Carroll, Chanele McGuinness, Crook, Damola, Darce, Evans Junior, Feather Beds, Flynn, Hand Models, Hunkpapa, I Have A Tribe, Jack O’ Rourke, Josh Gray, Joshua Burnside, Just Mustard, Kitt Philippa, Laoise, Leila Jane, Malojian, Maria Kelly, Molly Sterling, New Atlas, New Pagans, Ódú, Owen Denvir,…

  • Nas – Nasir

    June 23, 2018 - By 

    Nas prefers a raucous homecoming to the sanctum of a rustic ski-resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, it appears. Beneath a constellation of NYC lights, in the imperialistic surrounds of Queensboro Bridge — a staple of hip-hop iconography made famous by MC Shan in 1987 — lay double-decker speakers blasting amid a sense of godly reincarnation. It’s the first-listen party for Nas’s latest full-length record, Nasir. One time wunderkid, Nasir Jones, chose his city, his borough, to celebrate this album’s release; where he spoke, for the first time, his tightly-wound, unadulterated, street-scholarly truth. Where he first etched his name into hip-hop…

  • Just Mustard – Wednesday

    June 11, 2018 - By 

    Dundalk Co. Louth is becoming more and more of a creative hub, breeding a new wave of young acts paving their way through Ireland’s current music scene. From artists like Elephant and the now UK-based natives Video Blue and Trick Mist to staple venue The Spirit Store and local record shop Classified Records, the town is gradually becoming one of the country’s most vital hotbeds of talent. Testament to that, is the newly label Pizza Pizza Records, and with it – it’s first release, Just Mustard’s debut album Wednesday. Previous to this release, Just Mustard could have been considered a…

  • In Season: An Interview with The Mad Dalton

    June 7, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of the launch of his debut album, Open Season, at Belfast’s Black Box on Thursday, June 14, Belfast-based musician and songwriter Peter Sumadh AKA The Mad Dalton talks to us about process, influence, the imprint of literature on his work, how his Scots/Canadian heritage frames his craft, the musicians that have helped bring his music to life and more. Go here to buy tickets to the launch of Open Season. Your debut album, Open Season, is set for release on June 15. You’re releasing it via a successful pledge campaign. Were you hesitant to do this and how was…

  • Inbound: Dreaming of Jupiter

    May 29, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of a busy year that will see the release of their debut EP, we talk to hotly-tipped Dublin trio Dreaming of Jupiter about what defines their sound, milestones to date, their summer festival-conjuring new single, their favourite Irish music, and what the rest of 2018 holds. You’ve just released ‘Right Kind of Love’. It’s a real earworming gem evoking straight-up summer festival vibes. Tell us about the writing and recording of this track. We are really happy to have put this track out into the world. We have a writing process which we have developed over time. We pre-produce…

  • No Fading: An Interview with Duellists

    May 29, 2018 - By 

    As everyone knows (or should know) Northern Ireland’s alt-rock lineage is both proud and incredibly diverse. Comprised of stalwarts of the scene as it looked several years ago, Duellists are a new-fangled three-piece promising aggression, abrasion and intensity. Ahead of their forthcoming debut album, the Belfast-based band talk to us about influence, almost ripping off Fugazi, the John Carpenter-conjuring video for their debut ‘Into the Fade’, the state of NI music and more. You founded in 2015 and comprise ex-members of NI bands Element and Throat. How does Duellists differ from those two acts, and do you think your previous incarnations works to…

  • Carol Keogh: Walking In Her Shoes to the Polling Station

    May 23, 2018 - By 

    This week, In Her Shoes founder, Erin Darcy, outed herself on the Facebook page, having been its anonymous primary moderator since January of this year. Erin is a young mother of three who gave birth to and is raising her children in Ireland but as an immigrant has no voting rights herself in the forthcoming referendum. This extraordinary page, recounting the individual stories of women who have travelled for terminations, has been her contribution to the Repeal campaign. Knowing this drives home the fact that so many women without electoral influence (and their families) are nonetheless affected by the Eighth…