See in the weekend with the very best Irish tracks released this week, from Silverbacks, Nealo & Uly, to Swimmers Jackson God Knows featuring BONY & MuRli. God Knows (feat. BONY & MuRli) – We Move The Needle Who’s Asking? II EP by God Knows Nealo & Uly – You Can’t Go Home Again Silverbacks – Drink It Down Fad by Silverbacks Swimmers Jackson – Birthday Girl Bitch Falcon – Gaslight The Zang – Football Sundays Comrade Hat – Summer of Glove
Derry’s resident lounge-lizard/experimental pop savant Neil Burns, AKA Comrade Hat returns today with a slinking, sun-kissed, seven minute porta-epic. A marriage of craft and intuition, journeying through louche tropicalia, psych and jazz-pop, it’s taken from his forthcoming two-volume compilation, Old Gods. Written during an isolation-necessitated creative spree as progress on his studio album went on pause, ‘Summer of Glove’ sees an emergence of a more guitar-led, full band sound as opposed to Comrade Hat’s factory setting as bedroom producer. Burns spoke to us on the development of his forthcoming two albums, named for their spontaneous birth in fairly mysterious circumstances: “Maybe I was channeling the cautious optimism of…
Derry-based experimental pop auteur Neil Burns’ Comrade Hat‘s latest EP, Tuque, is set for release on May 10, but we’re pleased to say we have an exclusive premiere streaming a week in advance. Following a string of EPs – including his series of Winter EPs – production credits, and a high profile collaboration with Phil Kieran and the Ulster Orchestra at Celtronic 2018, Burns needed a change. In Autumn of 2018, he relocated to Toronto with some musician friends for a recharge that ultimately led to the creation of Tuque, a complete work that spans post-breakup what’s-it-all-about soul-searching to geopolitical observations in under 15 minutes, with cameos from cult musical figures of the area,…
Looking back at the sheer breath and wealth of EPs that were released from artists across the country this year made us giddy with joy and excitement. The boundless evolution of style, diversity, experimentation and confidence on display in 2017 was as momentous as we had ever seen or heard and, as such, narrowing this list down to 15 was no easy task. The following is a list of artists who we felt pushed themselves to new, ambitious heights and creative territories this year, who delivered both on record and in live settings and who proudly represented the fecund growth…
After the year we’ve had, it’s quite honestly surprising we’ve not reached another Gary Jules moment of collective despair, but fear not: Comrade Hat has it covered in a typically loungey, subversive fashion. Following up on his five previous Winter ‘festering season’ releases between 2009 & 2015, this latest EP, Ho Ho Hum, manages to smirk through winter’s grimace. It proffers five sunnily low-key ditties that dabble in jazz muzak, apocalyptic calypso [see ‘Driving Home for the Apocalypse-oh’] and and some swooning Stevie Wonderesque turns that bely its sinister undertones, offering another glimpse at the singular, surrealistic, oneiric sonic tapestry woven by Derry-based experimental pop songwriter and avant-crooner Neil Burns. To help set the scene, here’s the…
Having premiered its title track and lead single via The Thin Air in May last year, Old Amsterdam is a forthcoming EP from Derry’s Neil Burns AKA Comrade Hat set for release on January 17. Previously a member of arguably the city’s finest offbeat pop-makers Strength, Burns has released the EP’s second single, ‘Go To Waste’. A wholehearted, deceptively layered slice of experimental pop that knowingly indulges an “adult contemporary” angle, the track puts living in the moment and cutting oneself some slack centre-stage. Old Amsterdam by Comrade Hat
Capturing the curious quality of a solitary city traipse on the continent, the video for ‘Old Amsterdam’ by Derry’s Neil Burns AKA Comrade Hat is as uniquely dreamlike as the track in itself. An experimental ambient-pop impression, it’s a nicely layered, bittersweet ode to the eponymous city, bridging “old-world nostalgia and knowing, 21st Century detail”. With a mini-album set for release in June, it makes for an immersive audio-visual encounter with a multi-instrumentalist sure to carve out his path more and more throughout the year.