• EP Stream: EVVOL – Physical L.U.V

    May 16, 2016 - By 

    Having spent the last few months holed up in their Kreuzberg studio, Berlin-based Irish-Australian duo EVVOL have unveiled what they have described as a “very personal” five-track EP, Physical L.U.V. The follow up to last year’s Eternalism – a masterful debut album brimming with dramatic nocturnalism – the new release builds on that momentum with brooding panache, majestic hooks and wonderfully wonky darkwave textures, documenting what the pair have called “the physical and emotional comforts and constraints of love”.

  • Album stream: Land Lovers – The Rooks Have Returned

    May 13, 2016 - By 

    There’s something uncannily accurate about Dublin’s Land Lovers calling themselves “Undulating Pop”. With a craft that equally weaves and lulls with gaze-y, wave-like motion, their new album The Rooks Have Returned is a full-length earworm sweetly balanced between throwback jangle and dream-pop. Tipping its lyrical hat to everything from 1916, mortal restlessness and nostalgic reminiscence, it wears the band’s key influences of Elvis Costello, New Order and David Bowie on its proverbial sleeve, bursting forth with a level of hook-heavy songwriting that we’ve come to expect from the Irish five-piece. The Rooks Have Returned is out via the mighty Popical Island on Monday…

  • Absolut Stage Announced for Body & Soul

    May 13, 2016 - By 

    Promising to explode with beats, drinks, midsummer vibes and theatrical spectacle, the line-up for the Absolut stage at this year’s Body & Soul has been revealed. Curated by Arveene, Midsummer Nights by Absolut will host the likes of Irish/Canadian duo Deadbots, Extended Play Record’s Timmy Stewart, Get Down Edits, Billy Scurry, DJ Deece, Mother DJs, Claire Beck, LUMO DJs, Fish Go Deep, Donal Dineen, RSAG, Rory Philips and Stevie G over three days and nights at Ballinlough Estate from June 17-19. Check out the full Absolut line-up below and go here to buy tickets to this year’s festival.

  • Watch: PORTS – The Devil Is A Songbird

    May 12, 2016 - By 

    A perfectly-paced masterstroke of subtle, emotive power, ‘The Devil is a Songbird’ is arguably the strongest single to date from Derry’s PORTS. Accompanied by a superb video directed by the band and Paul Martin Brown, it aims straight for the jugular, confirming the band’s ever-growing standing as one of the country’s finest acts of their inspirited ilk. Speaking to us about the track, Steven McCool from the band said, “Like most of the songs I write it starts off with imagery, daydreaming. I could picture a woman in an old dark candle lit room staring blankly to the side. It looked like…

  • Body & Soul Announce New Arena & Acts

    May 11, 2016 - By 

    Few Summer music festivals – Irish or otherwise – manage to so successfully nail a sense of life-affirming magic quite like Body & Soul. Set to return to Co. Westmeath’s Ballinlough Castle from June 17-19, it’s been announced that this year’s festival will feature Second Nature, a brand new, “enchanted menagerie of lush music, contemporary performance, immersive, nature-based art and Zen-like pockets of peace, nestled among the centuries-old oaks, pines and ash trees of Ballinlough Castle’s forest.” Sounds pretty wonderful, doesn’t it? At the heart of the new arena (which also features the likes of The Sanctuary, Solas Bath House,…

  • Stream: Flecks – Girl EP

    May 11, 2016 - By 

    Dublin five-piece Flecks‘ debut EP Girl is a four-track statement of intent, keenly balanced between feverish Summertime synth-pop (‘Girl’ and ‘Distance=Distance’ and more ruminating, wonderfully darkly efforts in EP highlight ‘Objects of Desire’ and ‘Fear’. At once yearning and hopeful, it serves as a finely produced, sublimely restrained opening gambit from an Irish outfit we suspect will well and truly make their mark. Stream Girl below.

  • Dublin City Block Party Announce Bill

    May 5, 2016 - By 

    Originally a one-off, one-day event held in 2014, Dublin City Block Party have revealed Todd Terje & The Olsens, Dusky, Matthew Herbert and Leon Vynehall are amongst the names set to appear at this year’s street festival at Tivoli Grounds & District 8 on Saturday July 2 and Sunday July 3. Returning with an expanded festival set-up over three indoor and outdoor stages, music, food and games are the order the day for this year’s Block Party. Check out the full day-to-day line-up below. Saturday, July 2 Dusky, Matthew Herbert Leon Vynehall, Huxley, Greg Wilson Danny L Harle, Harvey Sutherland (Live) DJ Deece,…

  • Canalaphonic Unveil First Line-Up

    May 4, 2016 - By 

    With more than 120 acts set to participate, Dublin’s community-based Canalaphonic Music and Culture Festival have unveiled its first acts set to perform across September 23 and 24. Having made its inaugural outing last year, Rocstrong, The Eskies, Zaska, Mongrel State, Barq, Mongoose, Sinead White, The Word Up Collective, Mother Mooch, Late City Edition, Fox E and the Good Hands, Travis Oaks, Homebeat and T.A.S.T.E are amongst the first wave of artists and events to be announced. An ongoing collaboration between Dublin City Council’s South East Area Office and Abner Browns Barbershop, the festival will launch at Copan Rathmines tomorrow (Thursday,…

  • Watch: The Wood Burning Savages – We Love You

    May 3, 2016 - By 

    Having been steadily on the ascent over the last year or so, Derry quartet The Wood Burning Savages have unveiled the typically frenetic video for their breakneck new single, ‘We Love You’. Directed by Fiachra O’Longain, the B+W accompaniment captures the four-piece at their most urgent, frontman Paul Connolly’s emphatic decrees, in particular, coming into sharp focus throughout. Half measures isn’t an option for these guys.

  • Longitude Announce 45 New Acts, Day-to-Day Breakdown

    April 29, 2016 - By 

    With the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Major Lazer and the National already announced to play, Run The Jewels (pictured), Kurt Vile & The Violators and Laura Mvula are amongst 45 new acts confirmed to play this year’s Longitude at Dublin’s Marlay Park on Friday, July 15 to Sunday, July 17. With the likes of Vic Mensa, Annie Mac, Perfume Genius, Daughter, Stormzy, The Lumineers and Nina Kraviz also amongst the new additions, organisers have also revealed the day-to-day breakdown for this year’s outing: Red Bull have also announced their line-up for the Red Bull Woodlands stage, featuring the likes Ghostboy, The 2 Bears,…