• Watch: SÍOMHA – July Red Sky (Live in the Burren)

    July 7, 2017 - By 

    Lahinch, Co. Clare based musician Síomha Brock has shared a striking visual accompaniment for ‘July Red Sky’. A fitting and really rather mesmeric pairing, the song’s neo-soul and jazz influenced flow brings the marvellous pinks, reds and oranges of the Burren’s coastal skyline to life. The performance, shot live at sunrise on what looks like quite a spectacular morning, is as natural and breezy as the landscape suggests, making for an intoxicating combination that puts you right there with Brock and her band, wind billowing through your very core. Irresistible.

  • EP Stream: No Monster Club – Kaluli – Mexico

    July 7, 2017 - By 

    Champion of rusty pop production with more than one knack for a catchy hook Bobby Ahern has shared the latest instillment of his encyclopedia collection. Kaluli – Mexico is the seventh EP to come from the No Monster Club camp since January and is yet another serving of witty and infectious indie pop with lyrics that are equally so. Proving once again that he is one of the country’s most precious, odd and necessary musicians, ‘Factor 50’ and ‘Scouts Anthem’ are the perfect accompaniments for the summer days that are not-that-sunny-but-sunny-enough-like. As the man himself has said: “If you have any respect whatsoever for the summertime…

  • Album Stream: Blake’s Fortune – Hello World

    July 6, 2017 - By 

    In March of this year, Dublin based musician John Lennon aka Blake’s Fortune quietly released Hello World, a modest collection of contemporary folk that is at once charming and nostalgic for summers long past. Aptly described by the man himself as a “road trip” album, there is more than a light dusting of the quintessentially “Dublin” early naughties folk trend in this album, a tone that soundtracked many’s the gravelly, bumpy drive in a packed Ford Fiesta along the Irish coast. Think drinking cheap tins while your mate scrambles to build a dodgy fire on a beach, all to the tune of David Kitt‘s The…

  • Risk

    July 2, 2017 - By 

    Julian Assange has to be one of the most divisive and controversial figures of modern times. With documentary filmmaker, Laura Poitras’ (Citizenfour) latest, covering the last 6 years of his time running Wikileaks, you’re likely to think a little less of him. There is no doubt that the man is exceptionally brave and principled but what Poitras uncovers is a planet-sized ego and a certain naivety, at least initially, as to what he was getting mixed up in. Risk begins in 2011 when Assange and Wikileaks’ notoriety went into overdrive after their huge cache of leaks concerning the US government…

  • TLC, Leftfield and More For Metropolis

    June 28, 2017 - By 

    Metropolis have announced their first wave of acts for the returning festival on October 28th and 29th of this year. The line up so far includes TLC, Leftfield, Death in Vegas, Mount Kimbie and many more to be announced. Weekend Tickets go on sale this Friday 30th June at 9am via Ticketmaster.ie & Usual Outlets. www.metropolisfestival.ie

  • Q+A: Bear Worship WAS Here

    June 25, 2017 - By 

    Karl Knuttel – or Bear Worship, to use his professional name – has just released his nine-song debut album, WAS. It’s an exotic, hypnotic record that seems to exist in a time and place all of its own. Here, he talks to David Turpin about the process of making the album. I’d like to ask about the title of the album, WAS. It’s a very emphatic one-word title, and yet it also happens to be a very ambiguous word. I guess what I wanted to represent with the title is that every person wants to feel like they matter. Making…

  • Whitney: Can I Be Me

    June 18, 2017 - By 

    Whitney Houston’s much-publicised rise, fall and subsequent death is a tale of an exceptional talent that was surely wasted. If like me, you knew little about her life bar the mud-slinging from the mainstream media, then British docu-filmmaker Nick Broomfield (Biggie and Tupac) and longtime associate of Whitney, Rudi Dolezal’s depiction of the troubled star, will be a refreshing take that sensitively and respectfully delves into the causes and effects of her tragic downfall. They most certainly don’t have all the answers that some people may be after but this is an essential watch for anyone with any sort of…

  • Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – On The Echoing Green

    June 14, 2017 - By 

    Chaos is everywhere. Politically, ecologically or economically speaking, you can’t look far without longing for a friend humanity has never been too well acquainted with: Order. Timely, then, is the return of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, widely regarded as the apotheosis of ambient drone rock. So frequent are his trademark chaotic turns into rhythmless noise-scapes that comparatively 2017’s Fyre Festival looks like an extremely well organised event. On The Echoing Green, however, promises more overt pop elements at the fore, experimenting in clarity and collaboration and in doing so showcasing a whole new side to Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Prior to going solo in…

  • Inbound: Silverbacks

    June 13, 2017 - By 

    Having just released one of our favourite Irish EPs of the year so far, Sink The Fat Moon, Dublin indie rock five-piece Silverbacks chat to Will Murphy about lo-fi aesthetic, the imprint of the 90s on their sound and their plans for the rest of the year. Your sound picks up where the likes of Pavement, The Pixies and other fuzzier 90s groups left off. What about that era appeals to you so much? Everyone in the band is drawn to guitar bands and I quite like when that’s paired with lyrics of a humorous nature. You find bands like…