• Premiere: SlowPlaceLikeHome – Tiger Lilly

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    Written, recorded, and produced in the forests of South Donegal, where all his previous releases have originated from, the new Double A-side single by Keith Mannion AKA SlowPlaceLikeHome reveals the workings of an artist constantly evolving his craft. Set for 10″ release on May 23, ‘Tiger Lilly/Friday’ sees Mannion move more toward the live setting with production. Where 8 minute B-side ‘Friday’ tells the tale of a self-styled magician and Coulrophobic called Friday, the former – which we premiere here – is a burrowing electro-pop gem that tells the story of reflective delinquency from the eyes of a night owl. Nice. SlowPlaceLikeHome play…

  • Album stream: Overhead, The Albatross – Learning To Growl

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    Having formed back in hazy mists of time (2009), there’s something particularly gratifying seeing Dublin instrumental six-piece Overhead, The Albatross all but swamped with acclaim following the release their long-awaited debut album, Learning To Growl. Recorded at Clique Recordings and mixed by Phillip Magee, its nine tracks burst forth in masterful triumph, touchably impassioned and perfectly restless from opener ‘Indie Rose’ right up to ‘Big River Man’, a finale that serves as an emphatic full stop. Whilst many releases of this ilk is by its very nature necessarily “cathartic” (and not always with a degree of sophistication to warrant its nascency) OTA have bypassed formulaic rubric to forge their own brand of quite vital instrumentalism that demands your attention from the off.…

  • Watch: No Monster Club – Drinking at the Doldrums

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    With an opening theme sounding Metronomy jamming Daniel Johnston’s ‘Some Things Last A Long Time’ after one too many hours drifting on a carousel, ‘Drinking at the Doldrums’ is quintessential No Monster Club. Doubling up “the official No Monster Club video game – the world’s first ‘choose your own adventure’ moment in which you are given no options whatsoever” features NMC himself Bobby Aherne foraging and possibly getting a little lost in a forest. As for the track itself? You’ll be humming it for years. Probably.

  • 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,…