• 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…

  • Stream: Slow Place Like Home – Shadowcat

    January 26, 2018 - By 

    Late last year, Donegal’s Keith Mannion AKA Slow Place Like Home gifted the world with one of the strongest and most uniquely inspired Irish albums of the year. Released via Galway’s Strange Brew Rekkids, When I See You… Ice Cream! offered many peaks, not least in the form of its fourth single, ‘Shadowcat’. Reworked for today’s standalone release, the track’s submerged electro weaves a spell out of Mannion’s vocals, slithering synth patterns and some sublime, flittering beats. Accompanying the single release is a remix of SPLH track ‘Falesia’ by Andrew Morrison AKA The Cyclist. Do yourself a favour and delve into both below. Slow Place Like…

  • 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…

  • Premiere: Alana Henderson – Let This Remain (Live at the Telegraph Building)

    January 25, 2018 - By 

    Released in November last year, ‘Let This Remain’ by Alana Henderson perfectly distils the Belfast-based cellist and singer-songwriter’s carefully-composed, wonderfully idiosyncratic craft. Revealing the nuance and intimate nature of the song is a new video courtesy of Belfast photographer and filmmaker Joe Laverty. Directed and edited by Laverty – with additional camera work from Jude McCaffrey and Sharon Whittaker, and colour grading from Malachy Campbell – the video features Henderson performing the song with accompaniment from Pleasure Beach’s Alan Haslam at the Belfast Telegraph building, a stark, towering space that has since been reawakened as a venue. Unsurprisingly, the performance is nothing short of utterly…

  • Public Image Ltd set to make first live appearance in Northern Ireland

    January 25, 2018 - By 

    In an astonishing coup, John Lydon’s groundbreaking avant-garde post-punk outfit Public Image Ltd make their first ever appearance in Northern Ireland, playing as part of this year’s Open House Festival in Bangor, in collaboration with the BBA Punk Weekender. PiL are set to play Bangor Seafront on Saturday, August 25. Founded by the then Johnny Rotten in 1978 as an experimental antidote to the pop establishment furure surrounding the Sex Pistols, a dub-heavy sound on debut First Issue drew – through its punk tint – noise and progressive rock by way of Jah Wobble’s dense low end. With Metal Box and subsequent releases pushed their music further into the avant-garde,…

  • It Takes A Village makes Second Lineup Announcement

    January 24, 2018 - By 

    Unique in its setting of the Trabolgan Holiday Village in Cork to offset the unpredicatable Spring weather, It Takes a Village festival runs from April 13-15, and has announced its latest set of bill updates. The Good Room-curated festival offers an ATP-esque alternative in the form of 150 self-catering houses and apartments, as well as 35 fully-serviced campervan sites, not to mention the host of nostalgia-invoking activities Trabolgan has to offer. Today’s line up update includes The Gloaming frontman Martin Hayes, alongside one of Ireland’s most respected traditional guitarists Steve Cooney. One of the Irish voices of his generation, Blindboy Boatclub brings his podcast live on Sunday. Landless…

  • 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…