• Ariana Grande – thank u, next

    February 12, 2019 - By 

    Ariana Grande’s stratospheric rise to fame – with all its adoration, chaos, and residence at the top of the Billboard 100 – has been a tumultuous one. First breaking into the public sphere through virtue of a Nickelodeon show, everything about the Florida-born entertainer seemed innocent, childlike. The fact that her first scandal involved licking a donut speaks for itself. In the past two years however, the now 25- year-old has been forced to grow-up. And unlike many of her child-star peers, she has done it with a grace and defiance that has endeared her to the world and turned…

  • Talos – Far Out Dust

    February 9, 2019 - By 

    Talos makes a quiet but triumphal return with his sophomore release, Far Out Dust, the quick follow up to 2017’s Wild Alee. Far Out Dust represents a new sense of maturity from the Cork native, with more ambitious lyrics, and a confidence that was suggested but dormant before. While Talos – aka Eoin French – still plays with the ever-presented influences of artists like Brian Eno, Bon Iver and James Vincent McMorrow, there’s a distinct ‘80s pop influence on many of the tracks here, with hints of synth-pop artists like Hurts, or Years and Years. These influences aren’t surprising, given…

  • Broods – Don’t Feed the Pop Monster

    February 6, 2019 - By 

    Georgia and Caleb Nott are no strangers to the mechanisms of a perfect pop song. The New Zealand sibling duo – better known as Broods –  shot to recognition with their debut single, ‘Bridges’, in October 2013 and have since managed to cultivate a sound that is at the same time carefully manufactured and authentic. After a brief hiatus, their third studio release, Don’t Feed the Pop Monster is a return to form, a neat presentation of pop songs that are both energetic and lyrically thoughtful. It’s a highly anticipated release from the pair, having both been doing solo projects…

  • Michael O’Shea – Michael O’Shea

    February 5, 2019 - By 

    Look at any street corner in Galway, Dublin, Cork, London or New York and chances are, you’ll be met with crooners, folksters, dancers, trad musicians and poets. Some of the world’s best loved performers came to fruition through busking. B.B King was a busking youth before starting a career in recording and performing on stages worldwide. So too were Tracy Chapman, Glen Hansard and Laraaji. On a quieter end of the spectrum falls Michael O’Shea, the compelling Irish busker who travelled Europe, Africa and Asia, crafted his own instrument and whose singular contribution to recorded music has just been re-released…

  • Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow

    February 5, 2019 - By 

    “Kid came back. A real turn around.” Remind Me Tomorrow’s extraordinary lead single ‘Comeback Kid’ was an electrifying jolt to the system. Ducking and weaving like a prizefighter over buzzing synths and a clatter of snare drums, it was a hair raising musical feat that instantly heralded a radical break from Sharon Van Etten’s established sound. It is a trend that runs to the core of an album, which eschews her typical palette of dark guitar textures and sombre piano  in favour of a warmer, glossier soundscape that brims and burbles with vintage electronics and off kilter percussion. Each track…

  • Machinefabriek – With Voices

    January 26, 2019 - By 

    How much does concept matter? Hackneyed as it may be, it’s a question that comes up while listening to the latest album from prolific Dutch artist Machinefabriek AKA Rutger Zuydervelt. With Voices, as the title suggests, is an album of eight tracks composed around the human voice. Heard blind, it’s a fascinating document filled with fascinating sounds that evoke a host of different moods. Reading into it and things get even more complicated or interesting, depending on your view. Machinefabriek crafted a 35-minute piece of music that was sent to the eight vocalists involved, each of whom responded in their…

  • Bouts – Flow

    January 24, 2019 - By 

    After a five year hiatus, Dublin based Bouts have harkened back to when they were regulars on the Irish music scene, circa 2013, and gifted us with a long awaited second album. Flow is the result of two years of intercontinental songwriting and recording, as the lads are now spread across Dublin, London and Amsterdam. But has the maturity and cultural expansion added to the creative and musical process? Barry Bracken (vocals, guitar), Colin Boylan (guitar, vocals), Niall Jackson (bass, vocals) and Daniel Flynn (drums, percussion) have nurtured a sound that’s familiar and comforting in its ‘90s inspired indie pop…

  • The Twilight Sad – It Won/t Be Like This All The Time

    January 18, 2019 - By 

    A few years under the wing of The Cure seems to have pushed The Twilight Sad away from the subdued atmosphere of their last record, Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave. On this, their fourth outing, James Graham, Andy MacFarlane and company revisit the gnawing sinister sadness of 2012’s No One Can Ever Know and ramp up the dense, engulfing atmospherics almost to the same level as their 2007 debut Fourteen Autums and Fifteen Winters Previous albums have gradually eased the listener in the Kilsyth group’s murky world but this time guitarist (and producer) MacFarlane wastes no time jumping in…

  • New Pope shares surprise EP, Mångata

    January 4, 2019 - By 

    TTA favourite and Galway institution, New Pope AKA David Boland has dropped a spontaneous EP to mark the new year. Titled Mångata, the seven-track release is, for now, a YouTube exclusive and is the first new music to come from the Citóg Records founder in over a year. Since we last spoke to Boland around the release of his 2016 debut LP Love, he’s shared a reworked edition of tracks from his former band The Depravations and continued to be a regular live fixture in Galway’s venues. Strangely though, 2018 also saw him removing all of his previous releases from Bandcamp, including Love and its preceding EP, Youth.  With the…

  • Maria Kelly – Notes To Self

    December 13, 2018 - By 

    Have you ever had that feeling of knowing something you shouldn’t? Something so intimate and raw, it creates a discomfort. Whether someone is opening up to you willingly, or passively through virtue of their lyrics, there’s something confronting about it. Maria Kelly confronts you. Her presence is gentle, maybe even unassuming. Her vocals, at times, barely a whisper. But in her delicacy, there is a cutting catharsis that hits with the strength of a train.   The singer-songwriter’s latest EP Notes To Self was written last summer when Kelly moved from Dublin to Berlin and it is the diary that the…