Off the back of his sublime debut album, Loner, Donegal alt-folk artist Declan McClafferty aka Ramper talks us through some of his all-time favourite songs – from Kate Bush and the Bothy Band, to Dylan, Villagers and beyond. Photo by Joe Doherty Bob Dylan – Girl From The North Country I think this was the first song that pulled me out of listening to music through the prism of what the guitars were doing. I got a bit obsessed with the simplicity of it – acoustic, vocal, harmonica. Dylan is like a big hole. If you get stuck in there…

Irish music this week isn’t so much stacked as spilling over. Hear brand new cuts from Myles Manley (who we’re bringing to Ulster Sports Club on Good Friday – tickets below), Search Results, Garrett Laurie, The Null Club, Data.Soul, The Number Ones and many more. Myles Manley – Jeremiaaad 1 // Di Fontaines Tickets for Myles Manley and Garden Centre at the Ulster Sports Club in Belfast on Friday 11th April are right here Search Results – Be Laurel Garrett Laurie – Something Blue Data.Soul – My Data Soul The Null Club – The Null Club Monday’s Child – Love,…

It’s another stacked week for new music from across the island. The releases are coming thick and very fast – and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Lemoncello cover The Corrs in a way only they can. The Oh Yeah Centre’s latest Scratch My Progress compilation returns with standout tracks from Touzai and co. Connor McCann drops a stellar new EP, Cloakroom Q return with album number two, and there are some essential curveballers from Peng Weng, Unique Freaks and more. Link in bio Various Artists – Scratch My Progress Lemoncello – Breathless Connor McCann – After The End…

It’s been a while – too long – since we last heard from Galway’s Field Trip. And while we’ll get into the hows and whys of that shortly, the return alone is cause enough for celebration. Today, we’re pleased to premiere ‘I Get Down’, a textbook harmony-laced gem that reaffirms just why the triom became one of the country’s most quietly beloved garage-pop bands. Taken from their long-awaited debut LP, Foreign Land, it’s a track that reaches gently into the past and brings something timeless back with it: bittersweet, impossibly earworming jangle-pop. Formed in Galway and fondly remembered for a…

One of Ireland’s very best genre-fluid experimentalists Meljoann walks us through Status – a bristling, truth-telling odyssey through queerness, class, digital resistance and emotional survival. Blending industrial pop, retro-futurist funk and slow jams, the album takes aim at Big Tech, cultural cringe and the exploitative mechanics of the music industry, all while staying defiantly heartfelt and fiercely DIY. Here, she breaks down each track’s origins – from leprechaun-coded short stories and algorithmic nightmares to jazz-nerd odysseys and FOSS-slow jams. Status by Meljoann Rainbow Language (is for Losers) This song is rooted in growing up queer, when rural Ireland was still…

Off the back of their stellar new single ‘Under The Moodlight,’ cult Dublin psych-pop duo Liam Mulvaney and John Butler aka Tigers of Tin Pan riff on some of their favourite tracks, featuring Cocteau Twins, Rollerskate Skinny, Sly & The Family Stone, The Association and more. Liam Mulvaney: Cocteau Twins – Heaven or Las Vegas Could be anything on that album, really. It’s like a warm rinse for the brain; musically unique, exotic and intoxicating. Oft copied: never bettered. Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower A threefer this one. Grade A Dylan lyrics, Hendrix at his most fluid and…

From sharp returns to brand new sparks, I Dreamed I Dream, The Null Club, Adebisi Shank, Ultan O’Brien and others land with force. I Dreamed I Dream – Fags The Null Club feat. E L U C I D – Frameshift Adebisi Shank – Start a Band Ultan O’Brien – Dancing The Line Ultan O’Brien – Dancing the LIne by Nyahh Records Dash! – Luas Luas by Dash! YARD – Trevor Pastiche – Calories Adrian Crowley and Sean O’Hagan – The Wreck of the Julia Speak Wreck Speak! by Bring Your Own Hammer presents Daniel Luke – My Father’s Son…

Another beyond-deadly week for Irish music delivers brand new Search Results, Junior Brother, Nomadic Rituals, Deeply Armed, ghoulgirl, Swimmers Jackson x Stray Light, Awesimon & Pat Lagoon, and New Jackson. Search Results – Wrinkle Junior Brother – Take Guilt (Live at Vicar Street0 Nomadic Rituals – Fust Fust by Nomadic Rituals Deeply Armed – The Healing Swimmers Jackson x Stray Light – Stripped Away (Cold Fry Remix) ghoulgirl – not hanging around Awesimon & Pat Lagoon – One and Only New Jackson – LIVE ONES 2

Bandcamp Friday brings some of the very best Irish music of the year so far, featuring a phenomenal feature-length swansong fromG alway’s finest, So Cow, essential new LPs from Mantua, Hypnic Jerk, how r u, and the Darkling Air, and brand new Tigers of Tin Pan, M(h)aol, SLOUCHO, Meljoann and more. So Cow – Rebel Bishop Rebel Bishop by So Cow Mantua – Galtee Virtual Muse Galtee Virtual Muse by Mantua Tigers of Tin Pan – Under the Moonlight Hypnic Jerk – On the Edge ON THE EDGE by Hypnic Jerk M(h)aol – DM:AM Something Soft by M(h)aol how r…