• Irish Tracks of the Week – May 29th

    May 29, 2020 - By 

    How better to reboot our weekly round-up of the very best new Irish music than with tracks by Denise Chaila, Our Krypton Son, Naoise Roo, Brigid Mae Power, Paddy Hanna, Bantum, Just Mustard and more? Delve in below. Denise Chaila – Chaila C H A I L A by Denise Chaila Our Krypton Son – White Sun Our Krypton Son · White Sun Naoise Roo – Sick Girlfriend Just Mustard – October (Live) Sinead White – The World Stops Spinning Song Sung – Telling Tales Havvk w/ Participant – Operate HAVVK · Operate Ft. Participant Brigid Mae Power – Wearing…

  • Obituary: Luke Gleeson

    May 8, 2020 - By 

    The country lost one of its most ardent supporters of music this week. A vital force in Dublin’s live circuit, and a tireless advocate of up-and-coming artists of every ilk and sound, Luke Gleeson dedicated a sizable part of his time and efforts promoting shows in The Grand Social, Whelan’s, Sweeney’s, Drop Dead Twice and, more recently, Bloody Marys. In terms of sheer passion and incentive, he will be remembered by many as a one-off; a zealous live music fan who, in heeding the abundance of talent around him, played his part in making it known to others. As the Dublin underground scene comes to terms…

  • How Wowee Zowee by Pavement Captured the Sheer Unbridled Joy of Making Music

    April 24, 2020 - By 

    In the mid-90s, everything was about being BIG. In the US, Nirvana had proved there was an appetite for loud, scratchy punk-influenced rock music. In the UK, bands like Oasis and Blur were showing that indie was the new mainstream, conquering the singles charts, as well as the album charts. There was big money in making big music, and a canny band – if they played the game – stood every chance of making it BIG. And in the face of such opportunity, rock’s perennial slackers made their play, and began their slow slide towards smallness. For album number three,…

  • Infinitesimal Hinge: As The Grossness of Spring Lolls Its Head Against The Window

    March 30, 2020 - By 

    “This is how you disappear”, Scott Walker sings at the start of ‘Rawhide’, the first track from 1984’s Climate Of Hunter. The persistent high pedal of clustered strings that seems to hold everything in suspension – his voice, the secondary voice of the fretless bass – taut like a puppeteer’s strings, we now unmistakably recognise as characteristic of his arrangements. We can trace this dissonant resonance back to tracks ‘Such A Small Love’ from Scott through ‘Plastic Palace People’ from Scott 2 to Scott 3’s ‘It’s Raining Today’ – all his own compositions – and specifically to the talents of…

  • The Thin Air Lockdown Movie Lock-In: 100 Films of Solitude (Week 2)

    April 9, 2020 - By 

    Now trapped in the house, some of us have suddenly been granted that elusive free time that had previously prevented us from digging into that renowned auteur’s back catalogue, or watching that film that everyone you know was recommending you see, but you didn’t because of some stubborn, rebellious impulse. And yet, in spite of the fact that the mythical free time tree has now been proven real, we still find ourselves in the virtual equivalent of shuffling around Xtra-vision, browsing through the same half-dozen shelves of films, absolutely refusing to make a decision. Here’s your weekly nudge in the right…

  • A Problem Shared: How The Irish Music Community is Navigating Self-Isolation

    March 25, 2020 - By 

    A wise man once said, “The country’s cowped”. And you know what? He wasn’t wrong. But in strange, unprecedented times – in totally unchartered territory such as this – it doesn’t take long for the best of us to come together. Even now, as we’re all adapting to being cooped up in our own liminal little worlds, a sense of solidarity in numbers grows stronger by the day. For many of us self-isolating like it’s nobody’s business, the last week-and-a-bit has felt more than a little dream-like. And yet, loitering in the forefront of my mind, demanding to be heeded, is…

  • 10 for ’20: Rachael Lavelle

    March 10, 2020 - By 

    Jack Rudden predicts exciting things for Dublin’s Rachael Lavelle in 2020 and far beyond. Photo by Kevin Hennessy Gothic, bewitching and haunting, Rachael Lavelle is all of these things and many more. The Dublin musician is as multifaceted as she is enchanting. A competent songstress and interesting producer, Lavelle creates music that exists somewhere between Baroque compositions and ambient experimentations. She is the intersection of Bjork and Laurie Anderson. In Lavelle’s music there are countless layers of sonic peculiarities. Found sounds dissolve into oceans of ambient electronics, which are counterpointed by assertive piano lines and a strikingly idiosyncratic vocal tone. She…

  • Video premiere: Sunken Foal – Barley Stick

    March 10, 2020 - By 

    Dublin’s Sunken Foal will release his seventh album, Hexose, on April 24th. One of the most prolific producers in Ireland, the Countersunk label-founder and synthesist supreme – real name Dunk Murphy – follows 2019’s Ribbon Works and Le Doux Nord albums with a new 10-track collection of rich electronics inspired partially by “a lifelong infatuation with confectionery”. Every track on the album is named after some kind of sugar or dessert. Rich, generative melodies and syrupy atmospheres ooze all over the tracklist, while bubbling percussion keeps things energised. Throughout the album, comparisons to Laurie Spiegel, Cluster and Warp’s early bleep…

  • 10 for ’20: Grave Goods

    March 9, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of 10 for ’20 – our feature series previewing ten Irish acts we’re sure are set for great things in 2020 and beyond – Cathal McBride says 2020 is post-punk trio Grave Goods‘ for the taking. Photo by Moira Reilly It’s difficult enough to get a band off the ground when you all live in the same location, but what about when your three members are spread across three different cities, one of which is separated by water? Somehow Grave Goods have managed to make such impossible circumstances work. First conceived by Lois MacDonald and Sarah…

  • 10 for ’20: His Father’s Voice

    March 4, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of 10 for ’20, Christine Costello tips Limerick quartet His Father’s Voice for massive things in 2020 and beyond. Photo by Aaron Corr Blurring the lines between post-punk and shoegaze, His Father’s Voice are just one of many enterprising outfits to come out of DIY LK music collective. Since the release of their self-recorded EP Contexts and Perspectives in 2018, the group have met high critical acclaim, been awarded support slots with Viagra Boys and Cherry Glazerr on their Irish tours and will support Dream Wife at their upcoming Whelans show this May. In 2019, the band bounced…