• Track-by-Track: Meljoann – Status

    March 25, 2025 - By 

    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…

  • Monday Mixtape: Tigers of Tin Pan

    March 24, 2025 - By 

    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…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 21st March

    March 21, 2025 - By 

    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…

  • The Long Thread: An Interview With Joshua Burnside

    March 21, 2025 - By 

    Released last month, Teeth of Time feels like the culmination of everything Joshua Burnside has been quietly perfecting: layered alt-folk that sits somewhere between memory and myth, soundscapes that smuggle in the ambient truths of everyday life and a voice that cuts clean through the noise with understated gravity. A month on from its release, Burnside’s latest LP has already marked itself out as a high watermark and with a new run of live dates ahead – including a return to one of Ireland’s finest folk venues, DeBarra’s in Clonakilty, and a milestone return tothe Ulster Hall in Belfast (among…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 14th March

    March 14, 2025 - By 

    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

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 7th March

    March 7, 2025 - By 

    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…

  • Gears 4 Tears: The Lost N64 Game That Became Ireland’s Quarest Musical Resurrection

    February 28, 2025 - By 

    Somewhere between folklore and forgotten code, Gears 4 Tears exists as a fever dream of Irish game development – a spectral relic from the golden age of the Nintendo 64 that was never meant to be found. What began as an unfinished experiment by St. Brides, a Donegal-based developer with deep ties to the Silver Sisterhood, has since evolved into one of the most singular, sprawling, and joyously collaborative restoration projects in recent memory – a communal act of digital archaeology driven by music, myth and a shared love of the absurd. The story of Gears 4 Tears is one…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 28th February

    February 28, 2025 - By 

    Heavyweights only in this week’s Irish round-up. Dig into new God Knows, Iona Zajac, Connor McCann, Parnell March, Joshua Burnside and more. God Knows – The Art of Alienation Iona Zajac – Summer HEALTHGOTHWIFE – Proper Pleased in the Rosegarden Proper Pleased in the Rosegarden by Health Goth Wife Connor McCann – At The End of All Things Parnell March – Back Bar Grooves Back Bar Grooves (HM029EP) [PERCUSSIVE HOUSE] by Parnell March Adore – Stay Free Old Stranger Joshua Burnside – Teeth of Time Hypnic Jerk – Emotional Hijack Barnburner – Hills Maria Kelly – Waiting Room Waiting Room…

  • Monday Mixtape: Blue Slate

    February 24, 2025 - By 

    Fresh off the release of their debut EP This Is How I Sleep at Night via Blowtorch, rising Kildare’s quartet Blue Slate take us on a guided tour of their all-time favourite tracks—from Elliott Smith and Nine Inch Nails to Death Grips, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and beyond. James: The Brian Jonestown Massacre – The Devil May Care (Mom & Dad Don’t) It’s a sad song. Stripped back and raw. That’s probably why I like it so much. It evokes a strong sense of do it yourself – where all you need is a guitar and a microphone. But there’s…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 21st February

    February 21, 2025 - By 

    A stacked Friday round-up of essential new Irish sounds, featuring Chalk, Maria Somerville, The Null Club, Garrett Laurie, and more. Chalk – Conditions III The Null Club feat. Valentine Caulfield – Slip Angle Maria Somerville – Garden Garrett Laurie – Natalie Lucy Gaffney – Sigh Akrobat – Trumpet Ain’t No Gun Monday’s Child – Problem Girl Barry Peak – Ode to Pulman Ode to Pulman by Barry Peak