• EP Premiere: Mark Loughrey – On Through The Veil Anew

    December 10, 2020 - By 

    On Through The Veil Anew is the new five-track EP from experimental folk artist Mark Loughrey, born near the border town of Strabane, and currently based in Berlin. His first major release since the 2017 release of debut album, Treppenwitz, it’s both sonically and thematically a marked progression towards more ambitious arrangements and experimental storytelling. Drawing from the kind of subtly subversive contemporary Northern Folk tradition carried out by the likes of Arborist & Joshua Burnside, it’s steeped in roots, but subtly subversive of genre convention. Its expansive, yet intricate, organically arranged compositions at varying points call to mind the earthly etherealism of Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird…

  • Premiere: Mark Loughrey – Nothing But A Truth / Strangled Birds

    September 16, 2020 - By 

    Having relocated to Berlin in 2017 shortly after the release of debut album Treppenwitz, Sion Mills, Tyrone native Mark Loughrey is back with his first release in three years. Loughrey’s stay in Berlin  has seen him engage with and draw inspiration from its community, with A-side ‘Nothing But A Truth’ being another marked progression from a songwriter who effortlessly marries his own fernweh with a voyeuristic glimpse at the lives and insights of strangers. The single is taken from his forthcoming home-recorded EP, On Through the Veil Anew, completed during a period of self-isolation. As Loughrey tells us, “each track was written to a third person, and all address change in some way, be it physical, spiritual,…

  • Premiere: Landers – Clear Blue Sky

    April 17, 2020 - By 

    Fronted by Dubliner Christopher Colm Morrin, Landers are a new-fangled, Berlin-based experimental folk trio with an incredibly promising future ahead of them. Today marks the release of the threesome’s first release. Following a couple of rehearsals, the band recorded live sessions in a large warehouse known as KAOS on the outskirts of Berlin with Aidan Floatinghome, a friend who has also worked with Perlee, Wallis Bird and Hundreds. Over four days, the trio recorded a series of tracks – the process loose, the set-up minimalist and, tellingly, the dynamic intuitive. Out via heyhowareya Records, Clear Blue Sky is a first…

  • Premiere: Heroes in Hiding – Berlin

    May 15, 2018 - By 

    The second single from their forthcoming debut album, Actor, ‘Berlin’ by Dublin quartet Heroes in Hiding is a cathartically-driven effort exploring “a want for change and a sense of belonging, or lack thereof.” According to the Joe Carroll-fronted band, “The narrator has become fed up with their surroundings, and fantasises about a new life in Berlin. They are convinced that by moving away they will be able to throw off the shackles of their old life and start afresh, leaving the anxious surroundings of their current world behind.” Exploring “a ‘moment’ of uncertainty in life – a moment where we are…

  • Beyond Berghain: The Authentic Berlin Experience

    July 17, 2014 - By 

    If you have recently thought of visiting, moving to, or simply losing a weekend in Berlin, let me first of all congratulate you. Your sense of judgement is sound. In the words of Metronomy – if you’ve got to go to Berlin… GO. Everyone knows Berlin is quite actually the Laney Boggs of the world. Even when it wasn’t “hot” (thanks Cold War), David Bowie was living here, for Christ’s sake. And, again, like She’s All That, no one was particularly surprised that the moment Berlin took off her glasses (bye bye Wall), she became a shit-hot babe. But, sadly…