• Jeff Tweedy – Warm

    December 8, 2018 - By 

    “I leave behind A trail of songs From the darkest gloom To the brightest sun” Jeff Tweedy’s alt-Wilco resurgence continues with these eleven new songs of wit and, yes…warmth. The acoustic reimaginations of last year’s Together At Last record aside, Tweedy has tended to conduct his extra-curricular activities in collaboration with his peers (Golden Smog, Loose Fur) or make things a family affair (2014’s Sukierae with son Spencer).This is the first record of new material that bears his name only. Several of the songs have been road-tested during Jeff’s recent solo acoustic tour.  ‘Bombs Above’ is a tentative opening confession…

  • Arthuritis – I’m Great

    November 23, 2018 - By 

    Pan-dimensional (Cork) experimental electronic artist Arthuritis is set to release his sprawling fourth album, I’m Great through KantCope on tape & digitally next week via Bandcamp. Following up on the supremely-titled Neglected Ambient Shirts Vol. 1 and The Worst Of, alongside Arvo Party II, it’s as texturally-rich an Irish album we’ve heard this year. It’s presentation belies the presence of a real vibe here, and like that artist, it deserves to be taken much more seriously than its name & presentation suggests. In Arthur’s own words, it’s “a collection threaded together by themes of confusion and isolation”. An eclectic collection, and an internalised world in itself, where…

  • The Prodigy – No Tourists

    November 6, 2018 - By 

    What does The Prodigy mean in 2018? More than 21 years after The Fat of the Land and Music For The Jilted Generation, this is a band who for many years pushed the limits of taste and aggression for mainstream dance music. Consider tracks like ‘Firestarter’, ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ and ‘Poison’ which are still intensely antagonistic and hostile. But after nearly three decades in the business and a comfortable position within collective consciousness, what in the holy hell can be done next? Look at our contemporary popular hip-hop and dance charts and you’ll find a much darker world than what…

  • Look At Now: O Emperor interviewed

    November 2, 2018 - By 

    Almost a decade ago, O Emperor released their debut record Hither Thither to critical acclaim. From there, the Waterford-bred quintet would go on to constantly redefine how bands in Ireland could record and share music without, forever shirking the limits and binds of being tied to a major label. From the grandiose psych-folk of their debut to the weird, gritty krautrock, komische, garage rock and psych of Vitreous and the Lizard EP, the five-piece have proved themselves time and time again to be a group who have defied expectation at every turn. The outfit’s announcement in September that they would be disbanding, while disappointing…

  • Video Premiere: DJ Nervou$ x Post Punk Podge – Never Coming Home

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    Note: content contains themes of domestic violence. Two of Ireland’s most exciting independent prospects have teamed up for new single ‘Never Coming Home’ to raise funds for Limerick’s ADAPT House, which helps families suffering domestic abuse. Following on from homelessness charity single ‘Home Is Where The Heart Bleeds’, Post Punk Podge is posited once more as the conscience of modern Ireland, backed by claustrophobic beats from Just Mustard guitarist/vocalist David Noonan, aka DJ Nervou$. Factoring toxic masculinity, substance abuse and mental health into its weighty fable, the vitriol of its final refrain will leave you like you’ve just blitzed through The Butcher Boy, staring into nothingness, as Podge manages to decry perpetrators of domestic…

  • Video Premiere: Bróna Keogh – Sea Witch

    September 26, 2018 - By 

    After a busy year of writing and performing, supporting the likes of David Kitt, I Draw Slow & Wyvern Lingo, singer-songwriter Bróna Keogh’s new single ‘Sea Witch’ has arrived. With a vibrant video by Ed Cleary that accentuates the organic quality of her writing, Keogh melds folk with the hopeful wist of 60s pop, measured in its use of diverse acoustic instrumentation and harmony. It was recorded by Michael Hogerzeil & mastered by Eoin Whitfiled. As with the many Irish music festivals she’ll win hearts and weary minds at, ‘Sea Witch’ possesses the ability to restore basic human functions and feelings…

  • Big Red Machine – Big Red Machine

    September 12, 2018 - By 

    Cast your mind back to early 2009, and recall the exceptional Dark Was The Night charity album. In the middle of disc one, tucked neatly between Antony & Bryce Dessner’s ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’ and The Decemberists’ ‘Sleepless’ sat Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner’s ‘Big Red Machine’, an exquisite clash of strings and hammered piano keys that was perhaps clouded out by the diversity and richness of the album. Fast forward nine years, and the collaboration has been revisited, or rather, finally finished. The result, Big Red Machine, has been in the works for the best part…

  • Lisa O’Neill Set to Launch Fourth Album at Vicar Street

    September 10, 2018 - By 

    Unquestionably one of the finest folk voices in Ireland, Cavan native Lisa O’Neill, has announced details of her fourth album, Heard A Long Gone Song. Following a sellout show at Quiet Lights Festival in Cork & ahead of upcoming dates in the UK, New Zealand and beyond, the album will come out on October 19, and will be her first release on Rough Trade imprint River Lea Records. To mark its release, it will be launched at Vicar Street on October 27 in a seated performance. Heard A Long Gone Song was co-produced at Blackbox Studios alongside Dave Odlum. Featuring a broad cast of musicians in Cormac Begley, Christophe…

  • Monday Mixtape: Glass Wings

    September 2, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of its release in October Belfast-based singer-songwriter Stephen Jones AKA Glass Wings reveals the artists and tracks that made an imprint on his forthcoming debut album, Everything and Nothing. I’m under no obligation to be cool in these choices right? Sit back and relax as I take you on a tour of some of the greatest melodicists who inspired me in the making of this album. Hiatus Kaiyote – By Fire I’m always a little suspect of people who say they have a favourite band. But if pressed, Hiatus Kaiyote might have it for me. I’ve been lucky enough…

  • Idles – Joy As An Act Of Resistance

    September 3, 2018 - By 

    Urgent. Vital. Important. Essential. Interchangeable words that are denoted to music or artists that are deemed to be definite of the mood of the times. Albums and previously unseen and untold stories that break boundaries down, songs that transcend their form, artists whose messages become immortalised. Punk music and its offshoots have their fair share of such acts, but these words’ meanings have become denatured over time. Now, anything even vaguely resembling depth or that is tangentially outspoken is commonly misconstrued as politically charged or timely (sorry, not sorry, Macklemore, Justin Timberlake). Idles, a five-piece Bristol band who navigate the furious simplicity…