• No Monster Club – I Feel Magic

    February 19, 2016 - By 

    Magic conjures up images of David Copperfield making the Statue of Liberty disappear, David Blaine looking off-his-face with an eye drawn on his palm and saying ‘Shazam’ into a GMTV camera or even an uncle asking you to pick a card, any card, from a messily shuffled deck. In Ireland ‘I feel magic’ is a way of saying that we’re doing brilliantly. That we’re absolutely flying. On top of our game. Although there seems to be more than a hint of irony in that title here on Bobby Aherne’s twelfth release under the No Monster Club banner. He maintains the nursery rhyme-esque beats but gone are the…

  • Mats Gustafsson – Piano Mating

    February 18, 2016 - By 

    Mats Gustafsson is a sax player who has been recording since the 1980s, but for this strange release on Blue Tapes and X-Ray Records, he’s travelling a different path. Tasked by the label’s head with making music using an instrument he’d never recorded with before, he opted for the the Dubreq Pianomate. This is an obscure machine that acts as a kind of keyboard-less synth, generally used with a piano. In Gustafsson’s case, however, he turned the machine on itself, creating sounds that are shrill, calming, enraging, all dragged out in two lengthy sides of grinding drone. Gustafsson is known…

  • Stream: Shrug Life – Making Progress

    February 16, 2016 - By 

    With varyingly mind-numbing electioneering currently frying a good portion of the island’s collective head, Dublin indie-rock trio Shrug Life want your vote… … of confidence pertaining to the release of their excellent new single, ‘Making Progress’. One of our 16 For ’16 acts, the Danny Carroll-fronted maestros set out with the following Five Point Plan in mind: 1. Danny (lyrics, vox & guitars), Josh (drums) & Keith (bass) write song. 2. Get song recorded & mixed by Fiachra McCarthy (HEFTTRAX). 3. Get song mastered by Mark Chester. 4. Get artwork designed by Sean Conroy (deadl.ie) 5. Release song via online platforms. They have succeeded and…

  • Watch: Talos – In Time

    February 9, 2016 - By 

    Having first streamed it back in September last year, the exquisite  ‘In Time’ by Cork singer-songwriter and producer Eoin French AKA Talos has been brought to life via what should probably be commonly referred to as the Feel Good Lost treatment. Speaking about video for the track, FGL’s Brendan Canty said, “It is an abstract portrayal of searching for a lost love, clinging onto memories and doing everything you can to save it.” Wonderfully mirroring lyrics including, “I was loved and now that loves lost I know they’ll never find us/Way out amongst the madness I feel free” Canty summons an arcane world in which every movement…

  • First Acts for AVA Festival 2016 Announced

    January 27, 2016 - By 

    Having had a triumphant first outing last year (check out our review here) grassroots electronic and conference AVA will return to Belfast’s T13 on Saturday, June 4. With more yet to be revealed, Rødhåd, Mano Le Tough, Bicep, Optimo and Phil Kieran and more are amongst the first wave of acts confirmed to make an appearance. With its implicit manifesto of “collectively celebrating, amplifying and devloping the strong current of electronic music and visual arts talent that has and is emerging from Northern Ireland”, tickets for the festival – which will also include live lectures, Ableton workshops, Q+A with artists, label showcase and more – are…

  • Premiere: The Irish Youth Music Awards Volume 8

    December 4, 2015 - By 

    Back in April, we took part in the voting process of this year’s Irish Youth Music Awards at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. A hugely encouraging, jam-packed day of genre-spanning music and performance from some of our country’s best budding talent, it fully reinforced the importance of grassroots educational programmes that extend a platform to homegrown artists in the making. Eight months on, we’re pleased to present a premiere of The IYMAs Volume 8, a five-track release featuring participating acts from Louth – Jake Mc Ardle, Kate Rogers and Bobby Bankole – the recipient region of this year’s IYMAs. The album also features a track from…

  • ELO: Never Been Cool

    November 25, 2015 - By 

    In the annals of rock history, it’s unlikely that there’s any band less cool than ELO. Ignorant of stylistic trends, they started out uncool, and remained ever so. But behind the fuzzy hair, black shirts, and sunglasses of Jeff Lynne, there lies a creative pop mastermind, and a resolute quest to finish what the Beatles started. For something it’s easy to laugh at, ELO always treated pop like it was very serious business indeed. When The Beatles finally called it a day in 1970, it left an impact that we’re still coming to terms with today. More so than Elvis,…

  • Other Voices Reveal First Acts For Dingle 2015

    November 11, 2015 - By 

    Now well and truly an Irish musical institution after 14 years, Other Voices have revealed the first acts to play their return to Dingle from December 4 to December 6. With many more acts yet to be revealed, Richard Hawley, Gaz Coombes, Gavin James, Lapsley and Otherkin are the first five acts to be announced. Set to take place at St. James Church in the Co. Kerry town, tickets for Other Voices 2015 will be up for grabs via raffles soon.

  • Watch: Candice Gordon – Smoke in the Air

    November 10, 2015 - By 

    With vocals evoking the likes of Anna Calvi and Grace Slick to Nico and PJ Harvey, Berlin-based Dublin artist Candice Gordon fuses garage, psych and rock with classical and jazz influences in an irresistible brume of quasi-Gothic space. Set for release via Proper Octopus Records on Friday, November 13, her new single ‘Smoke In The Air’ personifies that elemental majesty in a haze of repetitive, mantric glory. Creative by Gordon with cameras courtesy of No Name Media & Valquire Veljkovic, watch the video for the single below.