• Track by Track: Moving Statues

    December 1, 2022 - By 

    With the release of their debut album, You Look Like You’ve Seen A Ghost, Galway natives Brian Kelly (So Cow) and Keith Wallace (Loner Deluxe) aka Moving Statues provide a track-by-track breakdown of the process behind each song. You Look Like You’ve Seen a Ghost by Moving Statues RUN OUT Brian: It begins. The bass in the chorus is what I think New Order sound like, but I don’t know much New Order beyond Blue Monday and the video where there’s two fellas sitting in bins giving each other slaps. Maybe that’s the way to go, being influenced by something you’re…

  • Stream: A Ritual Sea – A Ritual Sea

    September 24, 2021 - By 

    A Ritual Sea launch their self-titled debut album today through Parisian post-punk record label, Icy Cold Records complete with a livestream performance from their YouTube channel at 8pm tonight featuring album tracks engineered by Daniel Fox (Girl Band) at Sonic Studios. Their debut album explores themes of love, adversity and the personal experiences of singer/songwriter Donna McCabe and composer/guitarist Florian Chombart in their relationship as both a couple and bandmates. They focused on completing the record during the first lockdown, working with Paris-based musician and sound engineer Nicolas Subreìchicot (Vagabond, Lou Doillon) and they also received arts council funding via the Dept. of Culture and Tourism to…

  • Album Premiere: Hey Jigsaw – Who’s Your Dark Master?

    May 22, 2020 - By 

    Following on from the video premiere last week, Al Finnerty of Guilty Optics – under the guise of Hey Jigsaw – releases his debut album today on Waffler Records. A departure from the aggressive ouput of his previous groups, Finnerty has called in the corners to feature guest vocals from Ciaran Smith of Crayonsmith / Nome King, Conor Deasy of Tomorrow, Niamh Buckley and trumpets from Dave Prendergast of Glimmermen to round out this nostalgia-tinged atmospheric record, full of melodic nods to the likes of Pinback, The Sea & Cake and June of 44. Of the album title, Hey Jigsaw says: ‘Who’s your dark master?’…

  • Album Premiere: Locked – Locked #1

    May 18, 2020 - By 

    Locked #1 is a full-length compilation album from Patrick Kelleher and his Cold Dead Hands, Catscars and Everything Shook which has now been made publicly available for the first time. It was originally issued in a strictly limited edition for audience members at their triple bill gig in the BelloBar on 1 July 2017. The title was in reference to the venue’s canal side location in Portobello, Dublin. The decision to make this limited release widely available has been in part due to the Coronavirus causing venue closures, derailing the collectives original intention to perform a sporadic series of concerts at different…

  • Album Stream: Mark Waldron-Hyden – Future Life Continuity

    April 29, 2020 - By 

    Back in the mists of time – Monday – we happily premiered ‘I Can’t See You: Where Did You Go?’ by Cork musician Mark Waldron-Hyden. Subtly scopic and immersive in all the right places, it doubled up as a suitably emphatic first taste of his stellar new album, Future Life Continuity. Released today via Cork imprint Sunshine Cult, it’s a masterfully mottled full-length effort that, perhaps more than any other Irish release we’ve heard this year thus far, fully rewards a repeated listen – not least on good speakers or headphones. Recorded over a two-month period, “in pretty intense solitude” in his studio…

  • Premiere: M.Cambridge – My Sailor Boy

    May 17, 2019 - By 

    Branching out from his critically-acclaimed solo work as Arborist, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Mark McCambridge will release a new album as M.Cambridge next month. Released with help from Help Musicians NI on June 28th, Sea Songs: Anatomy of a Drowning Man is the result of McCambridge following his love of folk music out into the sea and onto the decks of 19th-century packet ships from Ireland, England, the USA and further afield. Traversing interpretations of sea shanties, weaver poems of Ulster and original material, the album was part-recorded in a Curfew Tower, owned by Bill Drummond, in the Co. Antrim town of…

  • Details of Conor Walsh Album Announced

    January 28, 2019 - By 

    Details of the release of new music by much missed Mayo artist Conor Walsh has been announced. Called “an album for his fans”, The Lucid will be released on double-sided vinyl on the third anniversary of his death, on Monday, March 11, with pre-sales available via Bandcamp rom February 14. Side A of the album, we’re told, contain acoustic melodies, while Side B comprises electronic material. The stripped-back release was inspired by composers including Hauschka, Aphex Twin and Nils Frahm. Conor’s sister, Fiona Walsh, who helped to bring the project together said: “This album is for his fans and by…

  • Album Stream: Conor Mason – On The Surface

    November 3, 2018 - By 

    As October gives way to the dark, nippy evenings of November and beyond, most of us will find ourselves turning to music – old favourites and new discoveries both – that double up as soundtracks to the seasonal transition. For some, this will(and, as we see it, absolutely should) include the extraordinary new album from Derry’s Conor Mason. Six years on from his second album, Standstill, On The Surface finds the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist at the peak of his powers in the realm of carefully-crafted, and beautifully wistful alt-pop.  From the sublime harmonic arc and flow singles ‘Follow’ and ‘On The Surface’,…

  • Track Record: Kevin Breen (Kid Karate)

    April 6, 2016 - By 

    In this installment of Track Record we hang out with Kid Karate’s Kevin Breen (and a crocodile) while he takes us through some of his favourite records from Tame Impala to Talking Heads. Photos by Aidan Kelly Murphy. Michael Jackson – Bad Who’s bad? A hee hee! Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly Hands down the best album of 2015.  Nothing has blown my mind like that in a long time. Kendrick is doing what Kanye thinks he’s doing. A great album to expand your consciousness. Tobias Jesso Jr. – Goon My friend Dave Parle turned me on to this guy.…

  • Shearwater – Jet Plane and Oxbow

    January 29, 2016 - By 

    It’s been a long time since U2 really conjured anything other than annoyance. It’s been nearly two decades since All That You Can’t Leave Behind rekindled some of their initial spark and the group have spent the better part of that time grandstanding, bungling misjudged album launches and releasing music that limps into obscurity months after release. So with the old vanguard falling by the wayside, it’s high time that somebody took up the position and started leading the charge. Shearwater, the brainchild of multi instrumentalist and lead vocalist Jonathan Meiburg, have spent the guts of the last decade finely…