• Under the Island: Experimental Music in Ireland 1960 – 1994

    November 24, 2023 - By 

    The mission to track down all traces of an Irish avant-garde has received a boost with the release of this delightful compilation, compiled by Nyahh Records. The label has left no dusty attic unexplored in its efforts to drag subterranean Ireland to the surface, providing documentary proof of free-thinking at a time of joint church/state hegemony. This experimental impulse could apparently be found at all levels of society. Take the aristocratic UFO hunter Desmond Leslie, who created electronic soundscapes in his Monaghan castle and took his place with the Meeks and Derbyshires of the world. Outside the country estate, there were pioneers…

  • Rachael Lavelle – Big Dreams

    November 21, 2023 - By 

    Swirling and surreal, Rachael Lavelle’s Big Dreams is a coming of age that pokes holes in the digital, postmodern reality it exists within. Self-professed by the Dublin artist as “an introspective journey that invites the listener to ask what it means to be alive in the 21st century,” it throws you the answer in the form of another question – who knows? Conceptually faultless from its gleaming and buoyant visuals to its unnerving dream-like soundscapes, the record is both languid and urgent. Co-produced by Lavelle alongside Ryan Hargadon, cinematic orchestral structures swathe over manipulated vocals and fragmented electronic beats on…

  • Naoise Roo – Emotionally Magnificent

    November 10, 2023 - By 

    Having emerged as one of the most unique singer-songwriters in the Irish music scene with her debut album, Lilith, Naoise Roo is back with her follow-up Emotionally Magnificent. This time around, we find the Dublin-raised, Belfast-based artist at her most open and progressive. The 11-track LP delves into themes surrounding depression, public perceptions of women with mental illness and the complexities of the music industry itself. Naoise Roo’s voice has already been compared to one PJ Harvey. This is evident from opening track ‘Sick Girlfriend’, her deep voice quivering with emotion during the voices but soaring during the hook over…

  • Tandem Felix – There’s a New Sheriff in Town

    November 8, 2023 - By 

    A funky yet melancholic guitar melody moodily introduces There’s a New Sheriff in Town, the second album by Tandem Felix – a Dublin-based project of David A. Tapley in collaboration with producer Stephen Dunne. Bathing in an expansive ocean of shoegazey dream pop, the album opens with ‘Finger on the Button’, paving the way for the arioso sound to follow. The title track ‘There’s a New Sheriff in Town’ boasts a sound reminiscent of Beach House, while standing firmly in bestowing its unique sensibility.  The nine-track album exemplifies the progression of Tandem Felix as a project since their debut Rom-Com,…

  • ØXN – CYRM

    November 2, 2023 - By 

    Not content with earning a Mercury Prize nomination for this year’s False Lankum album, Lankum’s Radie Peat returns mere months later with the debut LP by new group ØXN. Originating in a collaboration between Peat and Katie Kim – who is herself coming right off the back of last year’s masterful Hour of the Ox – the pair expanded to a quartet with the addition of Percolator members Ellie Myler and John ‘Spud’ Murphy, the latter already a long-term collaborator of everyone involved as well as being an increasingly in-demand producer further afield. Long awaited since the then-unnamed group performed…

  • Autre Monde – Sensitive Assignments

    October 11, 2023 - By 

    It feels fitting for Dublin label/collective Popical Island to re-emerge from hibernation with the release of this second album by Autre Monde – something of a supergroup of Popical Island alumni, fronted by Paddy Hanna along with members of Ginnels, No Monster Club and Land Lovers. Produced once again by Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox, on Sensitive Assignments the quartet stray further still from the more conventional indie pop of their early singles, taking the more synth-heavy direction of 2020 LP The Imaginary Museum into deeper oddball territory than ever before. While the excellently titled ‘Road to Domestos’ – an ode…

  • Maija Sofia – True Love

    September 7, 2023 - By 

    Galway singer-songwriter Maija Sofia’s debut, 2019’s Bath Time, was a rare gem, arriving in a haze of stirring narratives and intimate musicality. Four years later, she swings the lens away from history’s wronged women, towards herself. Here, she is not a compassionate historian – she is a protagonist filled with pain, anger, love and passion. Early single ‘Four Winters’ is an avant-garde pop ballad that marries figurative imagery with plainspoken references to sexual violence and direct imploring. This mode switching builds intimacy and depth. Sofia’s self-expression is complex and volatile, much like life is for a 20-something-year-old woman – her…

  • Elaine Malone – Pyrrhic

    September 6, 2023 - By 

    Elaine Malone is nothing if not prolific. Whether it be the improvised folk horror of Mantua, Land Crabs’ punk noise, the Krautrock stylings of Soft Focus or the experimental sounds of Lisbon-based Pot Pot, Malone keeps herself busy in an outrageously diverse number of music projects with her multi-instrumental gifts. This vast and varied output over the years proves to have been ideal preparation for a full-length debut, as Malone executes a dazzling array of sounds on Pyrrhic that encompass plenty of the genres she has explored previously and an abundance of fresh ideas too. In the space between the…

  • Caoilian Sherlock – Teenage Jesus

    July 10, 2023 - By 

    In between pulling double duty with The Shaker Hymn and The Tan Jackets, Caoilian Sherlock has been threatening to release a solo album for years. First testing the waters under the moniker St. Caoilian over 5 years ago, his first full-length album Teenage Jesus is more than worth the wait. Album opener ‘The Wheels Come Off’ is a dreamy, sentimental exposition to a record that drifts between its psychedelic, folk, pop, and country influences, showcasing a singer-songwriter who is at ease with his own creative process. Stand-out tracks include ‘Candidate’, a snappy and self-deprecating rock ‘n’ roll homage with more…

  • Lisa O’Neill – All of This is Chance

    April 11, 2023 - By 

    Lisa O’Neill offers up her finest release to date with All of This is Chance. The Cavan native’s fifth album boasts an impressive variety of collaborators, from concertinist Cormac Begley, violinist Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Kate Ellis of the Crash Ensemble, and more. O’Neill’s timeless sound breathes new life into traditional balladry. Upon a foundation of droning harmoniums, concertinas, and violins, which create a sound akin to fellow trad revivalists Lankum, her haunting vocals sit, captivating her listeners and luring them into a state of transcendence. Here, tracks like ‘Birdie From Another Realm’ slip nimbly from the clutches of modernity,…