• 10 for ’20: Mob Wife

    March 11, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of 10 for ’20 – our series looking at ten Irish acts that are well and truly going places in 2020 – Will Murphy extols the “hefty, passionate punk” of Belfast trio Mob Wife. Photo by Joe Laverty Try as the world might, some pairings can’t be separated. Think of Killer Mike and El-P, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Stills and Nash, and, of course, Eric Clapton and cocaine. No matter what happens, the fates always seem to bring these two back together. With the rhythm powerhouse of Wilson Davidson and Chris Leckey, Belfast’s punk scene…

  • 10 for ’20: Rachael Lavelle

    March 10, 2020 - By 

    Jack Rudden predicts exciting things for Dublin’s Rachael Lavelle in 2020 and far beyond. Photo by Kevin Hennessy Gothic, bewitching and haunting, Rachael Lavelle is all of these things and many more. The Dublin musician is as multifaceted as she is enchanting. A competent songstress and interesting producer, Lavelle creates music that exists somewhere between Baroque compositions and ambient experimentations. She is the intersection of Bjork and Laurie Anderson. In Lavelle’s music there are countless layers of sonic peculiarities. Found sounds dissolve into oceans of ambient electronics, which are counterpointed by assertive piano lines and a strikingly idiosyncratic vocal tone. She…

  • 10 for ’20: Grave Goods

    March 9, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of 10 for ’20 – our feature series previewing ten Irish acts we’re sure are set for great things in 2020 and beyond – Cathal McBride says 2020 is post-punk trio Grave Goods‘ for the taking. Photo by Moira Reilly It’s difficult enough to get a band off the ground when you all live in the same location, but what about when your three members are spread across three different cities, one of which is separated by water? Somehow Grave Goods have managed to make such impossible circumstances work. First conceived by Lois MacDonald and Sarah…

  • 10 for ’20: His Father’s Voice

    March 4, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of 10 for ’20, Christine Costello tips Limerick quartet His Father’s Voice for massive things in 2020 and beyond. Photo by Aaron Corr Blurring the lines between post-punk and shoegaze, His Father’s Voice are just one of many enterprising outfits to come out of DIY LK music collective. Since the release of their self-recorded EP Contexts and Perspectives in 2018, the group have met high critical acclaim, been awarded support slots with Viagra Boys and Cherry Glazerr on their Irish tours and will support Dream Wife at their upcoming Whelans show this May. In 2019, the band bounced…

  • 10 for ’20: Rising Damp

    February 28, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of 10 for ’20 – our feature looking at ten Irish acts we’re sure are set to do great things in 2020 and beyond – Eoin Murray profiles genre-warping musician and visual artist Michelle Doyle aka Rising Damp. Photo by Peter O’Hanlon One of the Irish undergrowth’s most febrile live acts, Rising Damp, makes music to be shook to. We first heard her at Banger Cliff, on the Sunday of Open Ear 2019, when she played an appropriately head-scrambling live set of ravey electronic punk and EBM. The Dublin artist’s effect-soaked howls and propulsive rhythms injected…

  • 10 for ’20: Denise Chaila

    February 18, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of 10 for ’20, Kelly Doherty tips Limerick-based Zambian-Irish rapper and poet Denise Chaila for huge things in 2020 and beyond. Photo by Tara Thomas Few Irish artists are swimming as smoothly in a wave of excitement and anticipation as Denise Chaila. The rapper and poet, despite having only two solo singles to her name, has been turning heads across live venues and major publications for the last couple of years. Winning herself a cover spot on the Irish Times’ 50 People To Watch in 2020, a celebrity fan in BBC Radio 6’s Cillian Murphy and…

  • 10 for ’20: Son Zept

    February 7, 2020 - By 

    In the second installment of 10 for ’20 – our new series previewing ten Irish acts we’re convinced are set for great things in 2020 and beyond – Stevie Lennox introduces one of the most forward-thinking, fast-rising electronic artists, Belfast polymath Son Zept. Photo by Niall Fegan We last chatted to Liam McCartan, aka Son Zept, in 2018 when his debut Q2B EP was released in the early days of his PhD at Belfast’s Sonic Arts Research Centre. A maximalist series of curveballing deconstructed club pieces that landed in the ears of Objekt – who has been closing sets with its cuts – and Avalon…

  • 10 for ’20: Acid Granny

    February 4, 2020 - By 

    In the first installment of 10 for ’20 – our new series previewing ten Irish acts we’re convinced are set for great things in 2020 and beyond – Justin McDaid introduces one of the country’s most singular live acts, Dublin quartet Acid Granny. Photo by Ivan Rakhmanin There’s a celebrated quote on a famous theory attributed to a clever man. Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with Acid Granny for an hour and it seems like time is being pulped into some sort of amniotic goo where we all converge…