• Premiere: Hiva Oa – mk2 (part 1) EP

    September 15, 2016 - By 

    With core members Stephen Houlihan and Christine Tubridy having recently returned to Belfast from Edinburgh Hiva Oa are an outfit currently experiencing a well-earned revelatory upswing. Drawing from the limitless realms of fear, loneliness, abandonment and awakening, their new EP, mk2 (part 1) is an emphatic, wonderfully-realised dose of experimental electronica that wears the influence of Radiohead, in particular, on its sonic sleeve. Where this would perhaps prove a hindrance for other acts of their ilk, Tubridy and Houlihan filter that imprint via a much vaster palette of sound, conjuring everyone from The Twilight Sad, Interpol and Jeff Buckley across the release’s four tracks. Though still…

  • Northern Ireland Music Prize Shortlist Announced

    September 15, 2016 - By 

    Having been awarded to Foy Vance, Robyn G Shiels and SOAK in the last three years, the shortlist for this year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize has been revealed. With the overall winner set to be announced at a special event at Belfast’s Mandela Hall on Friday, November 11 – a night which will also feature live music from Girls Names, Jealous of the Birds and PORTS – the following shortlist was compiled via an academy of NI music industry and media. The Bonnevilles – Arrow Pierce My Heart Ciaran Lavery – Let Bad In David C Clements – The Longest Day…

  • Metropolis Reveal New Acts

    September 14, 2016 - By 

    Having already announced the likes of Grace Jones, Moderat, DJ Shadow, Groove Armada, Floating Points (3hr DJ set), BADBADNOTGOOD and Novelist, Metropolis have revealed a new string of acts set to make appearance at its second annual outing at Dublin’s RDS from November 3-5. With still more yet to be announced Jack Garratt, Paul Kalkbrenner, Mount Kimbie, Cyril Hahn and Jessy Lanza (pictured) are amongst the new additions to bill; easily one of the strongest Irish festival bills we’ve seen in quite some time. Set in the industrial array of warehouses and venues with the RDS complex, the indoor event offers a…

  • Album stream: Oh Boland – Spilt Milk

    September 14, 2016 - By 

    While the West of Ireland’s favourite garage-rock, sloppy pop trio Oh Boland commence their travels across America over the next three weeks, those of us at home wait with baited breath for the release of their debut LP Spilt Milk on September 30th via San Diego label Volar Records  (at long last I hear you cry!) In anticipation for the official release you can now stream the album in its entirety over on Volar Records’ Bandcamp. With lyrics rooted in boredom, apathy and vague tragedy, Niall Murphy’s vocals are playfully sardonic while the rhythm section of Eanna MacDonnchadha (bass) and Simon McDonagh (drums) keeps things…

  • Watch: I Am The Cosmos – Letting It Go

    September 13, 2016 - By 

    Masters of the oblique, Dublin electronic duo Ross Turner and Cian Murphy AKA I Am The Cosmos have never been in the trade of empty self-promotion. Have grew up in the suburbs of the city together before forming in 2010, the pair have just unveiled their first ever music video for galvanic new cut ‘Letting It Go’. Directed by long-time IATC collaborator Dorje De Burgh – himself a masterful photographer with an eye for wonderfully cabalistic imagery – it’s a mesmerising accompaniment drawing inspiration from rare footage of Arthur Russell. Touching on the track’s subject matter, Turner said, “The lyrics are a reaction to social dynamics – people playing games with…

  • Stream: Robocobra Quartet – Correct

    September 13, 2016 - By 

    There was a while there that the would-be implication that we were receiving some sort of financial injection from Belfast’s Robocobra Quartet to regularly fly the flag of their sonic wares wouldn’t have been entirely without reasoning.  After all, a quick search on TTA reveals that we have shared news specifically about the Chris Ryan-fronted project at least a dozen times in the space of a year. Frankly, normally, that kind of thing would border on – if not positively encroach – overkill, were they not such a consistently intriguing proposition. As we bide our time for their long-awaited cheque to clear (disclaimer: we jest), the…

  • Stream: Vogelbat – Ovl (feat. Sad Mermaid)

    September 13, 2016 - By 

    Berlin-based Kilkenny producer David Sheenan AKA Vogelbat last caught our ear back in February with ‘Banx’, a track Eoin Murray called “a jittering slice of melodic trip-hop reminiscent of Bonobo or FKA Twigs, or the less jarring parts of Oneothrix Point Never’s catalogue”. Seven months on and Sheenan’s latest track ‘Ovl’ – featuring vocals from Berlin’s Katharina Burchin AKA Sad Mermaid – also slots very nicely into that particular description. Sheehan said, “It’s influenced by the likes of Portishead and Massive Attack. I’ve been working on it for quite a while, struggling with the mix, aiming for a lush sound without…

  • Stream: New Pagans – Lilly Yeats/I Could Die

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    There’s few things more satisfying than the sonic shock-and-awe of a band cropping up out of nowhere with a sucker punch of a debut single. Comprised of Claire Miskimmin of Girls Names/Cruising, Cahir O’Doherty of Fighting With Wire/GOONS, Lyndsey McDougall and Balkan Alien Sound’s Conor McAuley, New Pagans fall very comfortably under that bracket – and go one with further with the release of two singles, ‘Lilly Yeats’ and ‘I Could Die’. Bearing the hallmarks of a band that have spent some time fleshing out their sound over the last few months, both tracks are keenly balanced between the burrowingly melodic and downright vehement, each strident passage and…

  • Stream: No Monster Club – Hippocampus Circus Maximus

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    A typically buoyant effort clinging – rather impressively – to the last fleeting vestiges of summer vibrations, ‘Hippocampus Circus Maximus’ is the closing track from Dublin’s No Monster Club’s forthcoming debut 7″, Where Did You Get That Milkshake. Despite having released a dozen albums to date at home, the release will also mark Bobby Aherne’s abundant indie-pop project’s debut US release. Irish folk, have a pre-order here. Want a song to hum for the rest of the day, week – month? Stream below.

  • Premiere: Arborist – I Heard Him Leaving

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    With a sound in which subtlety holds sway where a scream would fall short, Mark McCambridge AKA Arborist is a craftsman of nuance. With his debut full-length album, Home Burial, set for release on November 11 via Kirkinrola Records, the Belfast-based singer-songwriter’s recent single ‘A Man of My Age’ garnered comparisons to such venerated figures as Leonard Cohen, Bill Callahan and Jason Molina with very good reason. In knowing there’s no need to clothe a skeleton, McCambridge’s knowingly stark, wonderfully composed songs put the cutting phrase and heavy allusion centre-stage, each lyric lit by softly lilting Americana folk betraying both longing and hope…