• Watch: Easy Tide – Denim on Denim

    February 1, 2017 - By 

    Navan trio Easy Tide have unveiled the video for their new single ‘Denim on Denim’. Formed in 2010, the band blend elements of garage rock, shoegaze and post-punk to create a sound that veers from the raw and energised to the altogether more fragile. ‘Denim on Denim’ sits modestly in the latter category. Their first release of 2017, the track follows from the release of their debut LP Ennui from February 2016 and singles ‘Tea Party’ and ‘Mind Your Head’. A hoarse serving of fuzzed up melodies and a honest lyricism, ‘Denim on Denim’ will satisfy fans of Yo La Tengo and Built To Spill. In…

  • Picture This: Reconstructing Memory @ The Model

    February 8, 2017 - By 

    Cléa van der Grijn – Reconstructing Memory (Image Courtesy of Heike Thiele) What: Reconstructing Memory Where: The Model, Sligo When: 17th Decmber 2016 – 2nd April 2017 Words: Rebecca Kennedy Irish artist Cléa van der Grijn has spent nearly a decade meditating on our society’s response to death and loss. From 2008’s Momentos to her new show, Reconstructing Memory, in Sligo’s The Model, the artist has harbored a fixation with death and loss – a fixation that has nourished her creative process. Reconstructing Memory is an exhibition that examines the disparities between the cultural responses to death in both Ireland and Mexico. Irish culture has an…

  • Stream: Joshua Burnside – Tunnels Pt. 2

    January 31, 2017 - By 

    Long one of our favourite Irish singer-songwriters, Joshua Burnside has been experiencing a real lease of life over the last few months. Having recorded his long-awaited debut album, Ephrata, with the likes of Smalltown America in Derry, Lisburn’s Millbank Studios and producer Phil D’Alton last year, the Belfast-based musician will set it loose via Quiet Arch on May 5. The first single to be taken from the release, ‘Tunnels  Pt. 2’ sees Burnside effortlessly adopt a slicker, more fleshed-out alternative folk aesthetic than material of yore, delivering a propulsive and impassioned ode that puts his tale-telling centre-stage once more. Make sure to…

  • EP Stream: Tuath – Things I Don’t Know

    January 31, 2017 - By 

    While it falls under the overarching “Alternative Rock” category on Soundcloud, Things I Don’t Know by Donegal’s Tuath is an EP that comes from a place far beyond your standard alt-rock fare. Marrying blissed-out ‘gazey textures with sax, verb-drenched vocals and a droning fog of psych fuzz over four tracks, the twenty-five minute release sees the Robert Mulhern-fronted outfit occupy a sonic plain that resists convention in favour of inspired overcast escapism. The following blurb accompanies the release: “A few songs about the boring numb reality we all live in and the effect it has on us when part of…

  • Mac DeMarco Set For Vicar Street

    January 31, 2017 - By 

    Having recently announced that he’s finished recording This Old Dog, the forthcoming follow-up to 2015’s Another One, indie rock chill-out king Mac DeMarco will stop off at Dublin’s Vicar Street on November 22. With previous Irish dates at Electric Picnic 2015 and the Workman’s Club in Dublin back in 2013, tickets for the Vicar Street show – priced €25 including booking – go on sale this Friday at 9am. This Old Dog is out via Captured Tracks on May 5.

  • Watch: Myles Manley – Relax; Enjoy Your Night Upon The Town

    January 31, 2017 - By 

    We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: you would be hard-pressed to find a more fiercely inimitable solo artist residing on this small island than English-born, Sligo-raised, Dublin-based Myles Manley. Set for a 250 copy limited 7″ release on midnight blue vinyl via Dublin indie imprint Little L Records on February 17, his new single, ‘Relax; Enjoy Your Night Upon The Town’ finds Manley in particularly joyous form, blending Tune-Yards-esque melodic sensibility with layered, deceptively intricate instrumental panache reminiscent of Dirty Projectors. Featuring an equal beatific video directed and edited by Seamus Hanly, ‘Relax; Enjoy Your Night Upon The Town’ comes backed…

  • Stream: Group Zero – The Pummelling Repetition Inside

    January 30, 2017 - By 

    Beyond the more post-punk and art-rock leaning world of his main project, Girls Names‘ frontman Cathal Cully has always had a strong interest in esoteric electronic sounds. Having recently finished up recording Girls Names’ forthcoming fourth studio album, Cully has announced news of his debut solo album as Group Zero, Structures and Light, a release written, recorded and mixed intermittently over the space of four years. Set for release via Belfast’s Touch Sensitive records on Friday, February 24, Cully said of the release: “It was as an exercise in my own development and it was fun. It brought the naivety and spontaneity back…

  • Watch: Lisa Hannigan – Undertow

    January 30, 2017 - By 

    A highlight from her critically-acclaimed, Choice Prize-nominated third album, At Swim, ‘Undertow’ by Lisa Hannigan is a wonderfully-woven chamber pop gem meditating on the mystery of belonging and the lure of escapism. Speaking to NPR, Hannigan said Alden Volney’s brand new accompanying video for the single aimed to capture “watery drift of the words” and to communicate that sense of floating “we felt the best way was for me to learn the song backwards, so that all around me would move upwards, not down. It took a while for the reverse words and melody to sink in — but now I tend to…

  • Stream: New Pagans – Worker’s Song/Ode To None

    January 30, 2017 - By 

    One of our featured acts in 17 For ’17, New Pagans, have just released two new tracks following their debut tunes in September of last year. The band is one of NI music royalty, featuring Girls Names & Cruising‘s Claire Miskimmin, Jetplane Landing, Goons & Fighting With Wire‘s Cahir O’Doherty – whose trademark memorable alt. rock riffing is on display – as well as vocalist Lyndsey McDougall and Conor McAuley on drums. The band have yet to perform live, but by their sound and aesthetic so far – with each song featuring unique artwork from the band – New Pagans forms the bridge teased…

  • Stream: REPLETE – Líle

    January 31, 2017 - By 

    Less than a month on from dropping Zizek at the Discotheque, Kilkenny producer Peter Lawlor AKA REPLETE is back with new deep house cut ‘Líle’. Released via Paper Recordings’ Project Fear compilation (which you can check out in full here) the single comes accompanied with three remixes from Dublin-based producer Sean Arthur AKA Kobina, Berlin-based Kilkenny producer David Sheenan AKA Vogelbat (whose new-born daughter Líle inspired the title) and Foreign Affair. This is a sturdy release with real variation over the four tracks.