• Goat – I Sing in Silence

    June 1, 2016 - By 

    Swedish masked-psychedelic collective Goat last Friday dropped their latest 7″ on Sub Pop. I Sing In Silence, a concise release featuring two brilliantly experimental tracks, demonstrates just how far the eccentric group have grown since their formation back in 2012. The offbeat group’s distinctive sound fuses together elements of afrobeat, rock and folk, incorporating tribal drums and chants to create an inventive fusion of world music. The visionary project embraces music and culture from all corners of the globe, bringing aspects of them all together to create an intoxicating, otherworldly sound. The experimental group claim that the project stems from a long-running collective of townspeople from their hometown…

  • Stream: Majestic Bears – Does She Know?

    May 27, 2016 - By 

    Galway based folk trio Majestic Bears have been making audiences ‘ooo’ and ‘aaaa’ with modest consistency for the past while. While still in the early stages of their recording career, the group have displayed a knack for charming motifs and deft sincerity to keep the summery folk fan in all of us whistling all the way to the shops. Ahead of the release of their forthcoming EP on Citóg Records Julia in June, the group are premiering their track ‘Does She Know’ along with B-Side ‘The Devil’s in the Details’. Following from their 2014 release Poems Addressed to the Sea, their latest offering…

  • Watch: Glimmermen – Bang

    May 24, 2016 - By 

    “With refreshingly intelligent guitar work evoking both Television and Maps and Atlases, the four tracks on Satellite People are perhaps best surmised in the title track, a tidy hybrid of Mission of Burma circa Signals, Calls and Marches EP, Pop Group and early Captain Beefheart.” So read our time-confirmed verdict (in our previous guise of AU Magazine) of Satellite People, the debut EP by Dublin’s Glimmermen way back in 2012. Four years on – and three years since the release of their impressive debut album I’m Dead – the band have re-emerged with a new single, ‘Bang’. Taken from their forthcoming second album,…

  • Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Denial

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    Will Toledo sings “I’m so sick of: fill in the blank” on album opener ‘Fill in the Blank’ and that line sums up much of the content on Car Seat Headrest’s first full-band studio release. That line also could sum up the last week for Toledo too as he’s been encumbered by a copyright issue involving a sample of The Cars’ single ‘Just What I Needed’. In what could easily have encumbered a songwriter used to complete creative control and in his own words “working on an album right up to its drop date”. Toledo maintains his “everything is done…

  • Watch: Saint Sister – Madrid

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    Having formed in 2014, Irish folk-pop duo Gemma Doherty and Mortan MacIntyre AKA Saint Sister have covered considerable ground recently. With their very well-received debut EP Madrid recorded in a short, “intense” session with Alex Ryan of Hozier, the release’s title track has been granted a sublime visual accompaniment courtesy of Bob Gallagher featuring lead Orla MacIntyre and some wonderfully rugged Irish countryside. Saint Sister play the following UK date in May. May 16: Gaslight Club, Leeds May 17: The Louisiana, Bristol May 18: The Islington, London May 20: The Green Door Store, The Great Escape Festival, Brighton (8pm) May 21: The…

  • Video Premiere: Tuath – Existence is Futile

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    A self-described multilingual experimental, progressive psych rock/shoegaze band”, Donegal’s Tuath (or tribe in Gaelic) have quickly established themselves as one of the country’s most singular propositions. With a heavy-metal influenced rhythm section and hints of jazz fusion woven throughout their sound, they are far from in the business of seeking slick categorisation – a fact impressively confirmed on their forthcoming second EP. Set for digital release on June 15, the lead/title from Existence is Futile is a downtempo gem that sits somewhere between a lamenting Madlib instrumental and a trip-hop inspired Praxis jam. Directed by Raymond McBride, the track’s accompanying video proves a suitable hallucinatory backdrop here. Check out our…

  • Stream: R.S.A.G. – Leave A Light On

    May 11, 2016 - By 

    Jeremy Hickey aka Rarely Seen Above Ground aka R.S.A.G. is a musician native to Kilkenny whose music and live performances have for the past number of years, funnily enough, been mythologised as legendary in a very “underground” way. Since beginning to operate under the R.S.A.G. banner in 2008, Hickey has been nothing if not a elusive, from quietly releasing albums like his debut Organic Sampler and 2010’s Be it Right or Wrong to randomly unleashing tracks such as 2014’s infectiously driving ‘I’ll Be There‘. To catch him playing live is a spectacle to behold, watching him relentlessly attack his drum kit, never for a second…

  • EP Stream: Thran – At a Loss

    May 11, 2016 - By 

    Thran is the monicker of Belfast based electronic musician Ronan Scullion. Releasing his debut EP At A Loss on his own label imprint Nonchalant Recordings, Thran’s music has been a patient labour of love over the past couple of years, taking plenty of time before releasing his melodious, frosty electronica into the world. Blending elements of Trip-Hop, post-dubstep and hints of garage, the music could best be compared to the likes of Mount Kimbie, James Holden and Burial. There is an ambient, spacey quality to tracks such as ‘Retreat’ and the EP’s title track that could lead to comparisons being drawn with acts such as MMOTHS and God is an Astronaut.  With a…

  • Irish Tour: Jeffrey Lewis & Los Bolts

    May 4, 2016 - By 

    With his most excellent band Los Bolts in tow, New York cult anti-folk singer-songwriter and (amazing) comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis zipped across the country last week for a string of dates with support from the likes of Shrug Life and Junk Drawer. Our photographers Sara Marsden and Aidan Kelly Murphy weren’t far away. McHugh’s, Belfast by Sara Marsden Whelans, Dublin by Aidan Kelly Murphy