• Premiere: Robin Olly James – Red Tor

    April 14, 2021 - By 

    As the bassist in Galway DIY metal/hardcore five-piece Ilenkus, Robin Olly James has played his part in melting a fair few faces over the years. In more recent times, however, collaborations with artists such as James Lonergan, Eoin Dolan and The BVs have revealed an artist versed in myriad guises and realms. Today, James drives that fact home with ‘Red Tor,’ a slowly unravelling dose of darkly, experimental electronica. A collaboration with James Sheridan, Philip Mc Mahon and Joseph Padfield, it’s a curiously entrancing effort, hitting like the claustrophobic inverse of Föllakzoid’s more recent explorations in cyclical, techno-inflected psych. Created and co-directed by award-winning visual artist James Sheridan, co-directed by Philip…

  • Stream: Chris Con – Around She Goes

    April 14, 2021 - By 

    As one of the country’s most accomplished drummers, working with the likes of Solar Bears, Contour, Leo Drezden and Pierce Turner, Chris Con has long been known for his dexterity and finesse. Now, the musician is stepping out on his own. Marking his first foray as a fully-fledged solo proposition, ‘Around She Goes’ is a deftly composed gem filtering that refined subtlety across a full spectrum of sounds. Taken from an EP, which is set to be released in the summer, the track is almost Wild Beasts-ian in its marriage of scopic pop and sublime falsetto. While it feels freeing –…

  • Revisit Katie Kim & Radie Peat’s NTS Show

    April 13, 2021 - By 

    Back in January, Katie Kim and Lankum’s Radie Peat teamed up with Percolator’s Eleanor Myler, Lankum producer John Spud Murphy and multi-disciplinary artist Vicky Langan for a truly breathtaking performance as part of this year’s Nollaig na mBan (if you missed that, you could do much worse than checking out Cathal McBride’s live report). Three months on, the pair ventured out together once more as co-presenters of a wonderfully genre-spanning special on NTS on Sunday evening past. Taking in Enya, Beak>, Robert Wyatt, Sonic Youth, ‘In Heaven’ from Eraserhead and more, it made for a suitably spectral hour of escapism. Thanks to the powers that be,…

  • Iron Maiden Set For Belfast Return

    April 13, 2021 - By 

    English heavy metal legends Iron Maiden have announced their return to Belfast. The Bruce Dickinson-fronted band, who last played the city back in 2018, will headline Belsonic at Ormeau Park on Monday, June 13, 2022. The show is one of many dates in the band’s rescheduled The Legacy of the Beast tour throughout next year. Tickets go on sale on Friday, at 9am.

  • Premiere: Cormorant Tree Oh – Zip Issues

    April 1, 2021 - By 

    Cormorant Tree Oh is the music-making moniker of Dublin-based multi-disciplinary artist Mary Keane. Three years on from the release of her self-titled debut album, today she confirms she’s one of the country’s most compelling experimental solo artists. Taken from her forthcoming second album, new single ‘Zip Issues’ mines Keane’s command of folk horror revivalism, and plays like a four-minute phantasm in song. Marrying skeletal balalaika and disembodied samples with low-lying synth organ lines and – a focal point here – Keane’s arresting vocals, it doubles as one of our favourite Irish tracks of the year thus far. According to Keane, the song – which in…

  • Praxis, A New Artists’ Union of Ireland Launches

    March 30, 2021 - By 

    A new artists’ union of Ireland has been launched. Launched as a trade union today (March 30th) Praxis was initially founded a year ago by a group of artists who came together to create a united democratic representation for their trade. A year on, 400 artists have expressed an interest in membership. The union aims to unite artists working across all disciplines, including visual art, theatre, literature, comedy, dance, circus, and craft, among others, to improve their living and working conditions. A central concern early on is the Arts Council of Ireland’s funding process, which has drawn considerable criticism from the Irish…

  • Premiere: Comrade Hat – Deep Sleep

    March 29, 2021 - By 

    Shapeshifting Derry-based musical polymath Neil Burns, aka Comrade Hat has just announced details of his new album, Old Gods, Vol. 1, which is set for release on April 13. Its final single is ‘Deep Sleep’, which we’re happy to share ahead of its popping on Bandcamp. Part experimentalism, part finely honed pop songcraft, it draws upon the familiar sounds of confessional, lonesome Americana, mystique, and glistening, low-key-yet-expansive 80s-recalling spectral echoes – possibly stemming from a Canadian stint. Equally, its sense of glacial, otherly pastoralism is not unlike that of experimental, avant-pop singers like David Sylvian, Talk Talk and Mary Margaret O’Hara, with his trademark self-deprecation…

  • Watch: Lilac – Remember, No Regrets

    March 25, 2021 - By 

    Scuzzy, unpretentious power-pop with a panache for irresistible jangle, fuzz & hooks is something that’s trickled into the water in Ireland, forming a fine cultural lineage – look no further than Good Vibrations Records and Thin Lizzy, and more recently, Pillow Queens. Trim-based sibling duo Oisín & Cian Walsh form the creative hub of Lilac, and today released their earworm of a new single ‘Remember, No Regrets’, which filters Ty Segall-esque saturated fuzz with 90s indie & psych-pop – completely self-produced in the band’s home studio. Initially set to be released pre-pandemic, they’ve pressed the record to 7″ vinyl, and it’s available…

  • EP Premiere: Poor Petal – zzz

    March 24, 2021 - By 

    After a three year gestation period, Polish-born, Dublin-raised Mateusz Koznik, AKA Poor Petal has only in the last month started to drip-feed his own blend of tripped-out, yet subdued melancholic hip-hop, woozy bedroom pop and lo-fi indie rock, imbued with found sounds and homespun charm. At turns hopeful and inward-looking, debut EP zzz – written, produced & mastered by Poor Petal – horizontally floats and drifts along, picking up, peering at, and ultimately casting aside personal flotsam across its six somnambulant tracks. Mateusz told us more about its creation: “zzz took me almost 3 years to finish. Before this project I was always writing music and making beats, but I felt caged in with my inability…

  • Premiere: Vivamagnolia – 990 Miles

    March 23, 2021 - By 

    Sharing a certain Appalachian sentiment, Ireland’s footing in Americana-steeped rock has traditionally been solid. Someone very much making his imprint on the next generation is Patrick J. Hodgen, AKA Vivamagnolia. The last few years have yielded a string of excellent singles that variously recalled those indie and alt. country masters of the late-90s/early-00s like Mark Linkous, Will Oldham, and Jason Molina, none of whom shied away from experimentation within the form. Following up on his debut EP, new single ‘990 Miles’ sees his work pared back into the kind of soft-focus, vulnerable, Westward-facing indie rock that made Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot an era-definer, elevated by gospel-tinted, George Harrison-worthy slide guitar as Hodgen reflects upon…