• Watch: Sleep Thieves – Is This Ready?

    July 28, 2017 - By 

    Having released one of the Irish albums of 2014 in the form of You Want The Night, Dublin-based synth-pop trio Sorcha Brennan, Wayne Fahy, and Keith Byrne AKA Sleep Thieves has spent the last couple of years concocting a strong return. Bolstered by a sublime short film accompaniment courtesy of Spiceburger, new single ‘Is This Ready?’ exceeds expectations. A simmering, four-minute burst of darkly electro-pop, it sees the band’s sorcerous brand of sonic nocturnalism as potent as ever. Speaking of the track, the band said it was “the sonic realization of memories, visions, emotions, and experiences, set to a backdrop of the…

  • Stream: Ciaran Lavery – Everything Is Made To Last

    July 28, 2017 - By 

    If you’ve been in any familiar with what we’ve done over the last few years, you’ll know that we have a lot of time for Aghagallon’s Ciaran Lavery. A rare breed of artist who navigates sorrow, wanderlust, love and the borderline mystical hidden spaces that both join and keep us apart, his music comes from a place of a potent grasp of the human condition. Having been zig-zagging around the continent playing shows over the last few months, his new single ‘Everything Is Made To Last’ is a four-minute distillation of what has made all previous efforts so profoundly listenable. Triumphant…

  • Body & Soul Reveal Electric Picnic Line-Up

    July 27, 2017 - By 

    Always something of a hugely reliable draw at the annual Stradbally Festival, Body & Soul have revealed the acts set to play its area at Electric Picnic across September 1-3. With Public Service Broadcasting, New Jackson, Donal Dineen’s This Ain’t No Disco, ELLLL (pictured above), Oh Boland, Shookrah, Soulè, Everything Shook and SlowPlaceLikeHome instantly grabbing our eye, here’s the full line-up: The acts will perform at various stages in the Body & Soul village, including the Body & Soul stage, the Peace Pagoda, The Bandstand and The Haunt. Plan ahead below. Body&Soul Stage Line-up Public Service Broadcasting / Moses Sumney / Aldous Harding…

  • Help Musicians NI Partner with Stendhal Festival for Henry McCullough Stage, Announce New Acts

    July 27, 2017 - By 

    To honour the life and career of outstanding guitarist Henry McCullough, who sadly passed away last year, Limavady’s Stendhal Festival – August 11th & 12th – have announced a Henry McCullough Stage, and new partnership charity Help Musicians Northern Ireland. HMNI curate the stage on Friday night, as well as the Oh Yeah Centre stage, and have announced the first wave of acts for their bill. As well as a distinguished solo career, McCullough was best-known for his time with Wings, and was famously the only Irishman to play Woodstock, where he played with Joe Cocker in one of the all-time great live performances.…

  • Premiere: the 202s – Dash For The Exit (Real Love Doesn’t Lie)

    July 26, 2017 - By 

    Dublin trio the 202s have shared the third single from their forthcoming third album. Following from ‘Up In Thin Air’ earlier this year and ‘Oh My My’ in January 2016, the band’s own brand of indie-pop shines through once again on ‘Dash For The Exit (Real Love Doesn’t Lie). With a healthy dose of krautrock’s percussive clatter, coupled with ambient, melodic textures and a distorted vocal, the track is one that rests in your mind for hours after listening, tickling the nerves in head that nudge you back to it again and again. Our Will Murphy described the 202s as a band…

  • LCD Soundsystem To Play Three Headline Shows at the Olympia

    July 24, 2017 - By 

    Here’s some news to ease those Monday morning blues: LCD Soundsystem will headline three very special shows at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre across September 27-29. Marking the band’s first headline shows since reforming in 2015, they will be the James Murphy-fronted band’s only Irish appearances this year. Tickets – which go on sale this Friday at 9am – are priced €54.50. LCD Soundsystem will release their fourth studio album, American Dream, on September 1.

  • Arcade Fire announce 2018 UK and Ireland tour

    July 20, 2017 - By 

    Arcade Fire have announced a short string of headline dates in the UK and Ireland for 2018 with each show set to be performed “In The Round”. Though it may feel like they only just left, having won hearts in Belfast and Dublin in June (read our report here), the Montreal troupe will be returning to Dublin on April 6 to play in centre of the 3 Arena. Tickets go on sale on Friday July 28 at 9am. To get a taste of what such a show might look like, take a peek at the video below of their “In The Round”…

  • Stream: An Taobh Tuathail Vol. 8

    July 20, 2017 - By 

    Make absolutely no bones about it: An Taobh Tuathail on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta has long been something of an institution here in Ireland. Presented by the tireless Cian Ó Cíobháin, the long-running underground radio show – which broadcasts midweek on the Casla-based Irish-language radio service – has cemented that reputation with a series of compilations comprising some ATT favourites of the time. Arriving 10 years after the first collection on CD, Vol 8 – which is available via Spotify below – is 60 tracks in length, traversing electronica, folk, psychedelia, ethereal R&B & neo-classical in typically refined and informed fashion. As…

  • Watch: Loner Deluxe – Summer Song

    July 20, 2017 - By 

    The music-making moniker of Galway indie maestro and Rusted Rail founder Keith Wallace AKA Loner Deluxe is an appellation that strongly hints at the willfully – and wonderfully – introspective nature of his craft. Conjuring the likes of early-to-mid 90s era material on Slumberland, Misplaced Music and Fluff Records via a prism of Beta Band, Grandaddy and hints of Nick Drake, new single ‘Summer Song’ is a blithe, lo-fi instrumental taken from both the recent Loner Deluxe/A Lilac Decline split, as well as the new Loner Deluxe album, Songs I Taped Off The Radio. Stream and/or order that on cassette here. Shot in…

  • Watch: Comfy Coffin – Content as a Cog

    July 19, 2017 - By 

    The self-proclaimed “lonely one man band” of Utrecht-based Wicklow man Bobby Mink, the music of Comfy Coffin stems from a place slap-bang between instantly accessible and brilliantly left of center. New single ‘Content as a Cog’ finds Milk – who is currently seeking a drummer in the Amsterdam area – in inspired form, layering everything from harp and squeezebox over fuzzed-out guitar and bass to deliver a track bursting with real alt-pop finesse and resourcefulness. Better still, the video kicks several shades of ass. Have a peek.