• Premiere: Hot Cops – Scared of Everything

    February 11, 2016 - By 

    It’s no coincidence that we’ve hosted Belfast indie rock trio Hot Cops in four different TTA shows over the last couple of years, most recently at a packed-out show at Belfast’s Lavery’s on Tuesday night for the launch of their stellar new single ‘Passive Passive‘. The b-side to that, ‘Scared of Everything’ is an equally emphatic effort from the fast-rising threesome, forging pounding, fuzzed-out chords and frontman Carl Eccles’ admissions of apprehension (“I’m afraid to go outside/I don’t want to see your skin/I’m afraid to let you in”). Conjuring the likes of Pinkerton-era Weezer and Cloud Nothings’ more tuneful throwdowns, it gives everyday quasi-agoraphobic dread yet another…

  • Watch: Bantum & Loah – Take It

    February 10, 2016 - By 

    Cork born, Dublin based producer Ruari Lynch (AKA Bantum) and Irish/Sierra Leonean vocalist Loah are two artists who have been keen to take their time with regard to individual releases over the past couple of years. The last piece of released music from Bantum was his 2014 collaborative EP with Eimear O’Donovan and Owensie while, despite her soulful and much lauded live performances, we will not be hearing a debut EP from Loah until later this year. What a treat it is then to hear these two artists collaborate on brand new track ‘Take It’, a swelling electronic arrangement embellished…

  • Reverberation Psych Fest Announces Lineup

    February 10, 2016 - By 

    The full line-up for the second annual (and comprehensively unmissable) Reverberation Weekend at Dublin’s Grand Social has been announced. The psych fest takes place over April 8 and 9 in association with Heineken Ireland Music, and features some of the best acts in the genre, from home and abroad. The lineup is as follows: The Cosmic Dead The Cult Of Dom Keller The Black Tambourines Twinkranes Woven Skull Beach Wild Rocket Fabric I Heart The Monster Hero Sun Mahshene Tickets go on sale from Monday, February 15, available at Tickets.ie.

  • First Acts Revealed for Forbidden Fruit

    February 9, 2016 - By 

    Tame Impala, Jungle and Underworld are amongst the first acts announced to play this year’s Forbidden Fruit. Set to return to Dublin’s Royal Hospital Kilmainham during the June Bank Holiday of June 3-5, Flume, Groove Armada, Kiasmos and Battles also feature amongst the first wave of acts to be confirmed. With many more acts set to be announced, check out the current line-up below. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Wednesday, February 10) at 9am.

  • Watch: September Girls – Love No One

    February 8, 2016 - By 

    A dark and charging effort from the South by Southwest-bound Dublin five-piece, September Girls have re-emerged with new single ‘Love No One’. Pretty much exactly what we’d imagine the opening theme from a revenge horror re-imaging of a spaghetti Western to sound like, it’s a wonderfully tempestuous cut taken from their forthcoming album, Age of Indignation, which is set for released on April 8.  Check out the suitably baleful video for the single, courtesy of the band’s vocalist and lead guitarist Jessie Ward O’Sullivan, below.

  • Download: The Crytearions – Selected Recordings From The Album Trilogy

    February 8, 2016 - By 

    Concisely self-summed up as “Lo-fi punk by an Irish man” on his Bandcamp page, The Crytearions is prolific Co. Mayo musician Jimmy Monaghan, also of Music For Dead Birds. Brilliantly ramshackle and fuzzily ecstatic in all the right places, he has just released Selected Recordings From The Album Trilogy, described as “The best bits [from his first three albums]. All the imaginary hits. No shits. One for the inquisitors, the idle listeners. The loners, the stoners, and the perpetual boners.” And the perpetual boners, like. Pure poetry. Clocking in at 16 minutes in length, stream/download the album below. Selected Recordings From The Album…

  • Watch: Naadia – Omut

    February 8, 2016 - By 

    Russian indie-pop quintet Naadia have, over the past few years, been firmly establishing themselves as towering examples of the country’s quietly bubbling alternative music scene; a scene that is, by and large, embarrassingly overlooked from our all-too-cosy, “western” media bubble. Moscow’s Naadia however, along with St. Petersburg’s dreamy shoegazers Pinkshinyultrablast, have recently begun making vibrant waves that have become utterly impossible to ignore. Naadia (Наадя) create music that is radiant and warm, and bouncing with melody. Nowhere is this dazzling sound more evident than in their most recent single Omut (Омут). Opening with a shimmering, echoed vocal, the song starts as it…

  • First Acts Announced for Life Festival

    February 5, 2016 - By 

    One of the strongest first Irish festival announcements we’ve seen in some time, Life Festival revealed today that Paul Kalkbrenner, 2manydjs, Mano Le Tough, John Talabot, Blawan and Joy Orbison are amongst the acts set to make an appearance at Westmeath’s Belvedere House from May 27-29.With a limited number of early bird tickets on sale now, Jeff Mills, Ben Klock, Cyril Hahn, Martyn, Bicep, Jamie Jones and Sunil Sharpe are also amongst the first wave of acts to play the festival’s X1 outing. Go to the Life festival website for full information

  • Premiere: A Northern Light – Paranoia

    February 5, 2016 - By 

    Having formed back in the starry-eyed days of 2010, Belfast-based alt-rock trio A Northern Light have always leaped straight for the jugular, a tradition which their rousing new single, ‘Paranoia’, more than comfortably attests to. Recorded for the most part with Neal Calderwood at Manor Park studio, much of the instrumentation on the track, including its web of synths, drum loops and backing vocals, were recorded by the band at home. Driven by Omar Ben Hassine’s urging drum-and bass rhythm – often an ANL sonic trademark – it’s a subtly layered, typically impassioned effort from the threesome. Taken from the forthcoming first installment of their two-part LP, Kingdoms, ‘Paranoia’ is released on February…

  • Townlands Carnival Unveil First Line-up

    February 4, 2016 - By 

    With Irish summer festival announcements creeping up all over the place recently, Co. Cork’s Townlands Carnival have revealed their first string of confirmed acts. Set to return to Macroom from July 8-10, Damien Dempsey, Jerry Fish (pictured), R.S.A.G, Daithi, Talos, Saint Sister, The Altered Hours and the Eskies are amongst the first names to be announced. With quite a few more acts to be unveiled, check out the current line-up below and go here to buy tickets.