• Watch: Myles Manley – Pasta Solo

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    Inimitable English-born, Sligo-raiser, Dublin-based Myles Manley has just revealed the video for ‘Pasta Solo’, the first-rate B-side to his latest single. Filmed by artist Salvatore Fullam, and with a loose narrative thread based on a portrait of Manley, he’s leaning once more into the esoteric. It’s kitchen sink bedroom music, utilising – Tom Waits style – unorthodox instrumentation and deceptively intricate instrumental panache to share with us some of the sounds from a most unique of minds. The record, ‘Relax; Enjoy Yr Night Upon the Town’ is available in a limited 7″ release on midnight blue vinyl via Dublin indie imprint Little L Records.  Myles Manley officially launches…

  • Video Premiere: Joni – 292

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    Having wowed us back in 2015 with her thrilling debut ‘Running’, Wicklow vocalist Joni has made a long awaited return with ‘292’. Like on ‘Running’, breezy, organic atmospheres once again course through the track’s hard-hitting garage and R&B foundations. There is a distinct sense of the urban permeating its four minute runtime, distorted by a mesmeric haze of coloured smoke and late night fog. Joni’s lyrics, carried by her soulful and mesmeric voice, are an ode to a particular house that witnessed many an aftersession. Combed with resignation of a long gone romance, the track was written, as Joni puts it ““following…

  • The xx, A Tribe Called Quest, Interpol and More Set For Electric Picnic

    March 23, 2017 - By 

    Set to return to Stradbally Estate in Co. Laois across September 1-3, the first names set to play this year’s Electric Picnic have been announced. Including headliners The xx, A Tribe Called Quest and Duran Duran, Chaka Khan, Interpol (pictured), Run The Jewels, Father John Misty, Parquet Courts, Pond and Car Seat Headrest were all amongst the announced acts. With more names set to be revealed, check out the full first line-up below.

  • Video Premiere: THUMPER – The Loser

    March 24, 2017 - By 

    Set to play their first ever all-ages gig at BIMM Institute’s showcase at Workman’s Club on April 1, Dublin quartet THUMPER unveiled their fuzzed-out latest single, ‘The Loser’, at the start of the month. Arguably the foursome’s finest effort to date, it’s a starry-eyed burst of noise-pop harking back to Blur’s more riotous earlier efforts, filtered through the the Dublin band’s own brand of bubblegum scuzz. The first single to be taken from the band’s upcoming POP! GOES THE WEASEL EP, have a first look at Alan McCarthy’s tripped out visuals for the track below.

  • Stream: Daithí – Holiday Home

    March 22, 2017 - By 

    Daithí is always at his strongest when his music is at its most introspective. On ‘Holiday Home’, a fresh cut taken from his forthcoming EP of the same name, the Clare based producer proves this once again with a deep groove and weaving, pulsating melodies. The track harks to the likes of both of Dan Snaith’s monikers, Caribou and Daphni as well as bearing some loyalty to the melodic propulsion of George Fitzgerald‘s 2015 album Fading Love. It is carried and made into something truly special with the bodhrán sample that carries through it. The sample once again shows the producers affinity to incorporating elements of trad music…

  • Album Premiere: Clang Sayne – The Round Soul of the World

    March 21, 2017 - By 

    Conceived in London by Wexford artist Laura Hyland back in 2008 as a means to forge her interests in song, story and sound improvisation, Irish quartet Clang Sayne are an act that have been mentioned in the same breath as such alt-folk luminaries as diverse and inimitable as Tim Buckley and Jandek. Eight years on from their debut Winterlands – a brooding and emotionally potent release – the four-piece (in its current incarnation of in its current incarnation of Hyland on acoustic guitar and vocals, Judith Ring on vocals, Carolyn Goodwin on bass clarinet and drummer Matthew Jacobson) have been busy working on its…

  • Stream: Paddy Hanna – Sunday Milkshake

    March 21, 2017 - By 

    Masterful Dublin songsmith Paddy Hanna has unveiled yet another song in the form of ‘Sunday Milkshake’, ahead of the release of new single ‘Bad Boys’ on March 24. Featuring hints of a motorik beat, filled out with a lush orchestral arrangement, Hanna has once again put his genre-tapping to full use in proving why he’s one of the finest, most artful pop songwriters in Ireland – if his string of singles from mid-2015 following 2014 debut album Leafy Stiletto didn’t already do it – check them out on Soundcloud. On its themes, Hanna states that Sunday Milkshake is “a tale of realisation, of sleeping on a…

  • Sunflowerfest Announce First Wave of Acts

    March 20, 2017 - By 

    Perhaps more than most small Irish festivals of its ilk, the evolution of Sunflowerfest has been notable over the last couple of years. Set to return to Tubby’s Farm at Hillsborough from July 28-30, the first acts revealed to play this year’s outing only serves to confirm that fact. With the theme of A Parallel Universe, Rubberbandits (pictured), Farah Elle, Damola, Le Galaxie, Malojian, R51, OR:LA, Ryan Vail, King Kong Company, Electric Swing Circus, Too Many T’s, JIKA! JIKA!, Ponyhawke, Beans on Toast and Mr B. The Gentleman Rhymer are amongst the first names to be confirmed, with yet more to be…

  • Watch: ‘Document: A Film About Malojian’

    March 20, 2017 - By 

    If there’s one thing we could all take from Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s 2004 Metallica film Some Kind of Monster it’s that fly-on-the-wall, “in-the-studio” documentaries can – given the wrong variables – capture a very unique kind of tension and uncomfortable atmosphere. Something of the polar opposite of that (in more ways that one) Colm Laverty’s exceptional Document: A Film About Malojian captures a band whose chemistry and compatibility as a unit is, in itself, endearing, entertaining and hugely watchable. Featuring the Stevie Scullion-fronted band recording their exquisite third studio album This Is Nowhere with the towering Steve Albini at his Chicago studio…

  • Watch: This Ain’t No Disco Episode II featuring Villagers’ Conor O’Brien, Nico Muhly & More

    March 19, 2017 - By 

    This Ain’t No Disco is an Irish music program for the times. The work of the equally tireless Donal Dineen and Myles O’Reilly, the first installment – which landed at the tail-end of 2016 – married music, visuals, discussion and collaboration in wonderfully-woven, beautifully intimate fashion. Featuring Brian Mac Gloinn of Ye Vagabonds, a collaboration between Villagers’ Conor O’Brien and Nico Muhly, Cormac Begley, Landless and more, episode two continues the trend, getting to the heart of what defines modern Irish music and its potent links to the past in filmic, typically evocative fashion.