• Irish Tracks of the Week – July 9th

    July 9, 2021 - By 

    It’s been yet another banner week for Irish music. Dig into the best new sounds of the past seven days below, featuring new sounds from Aoife Nessa Frances, Elephant, Loah, HAVVK, Invaderband, Ciaran Lavery, ZALI and more Jack Name & Aoife Nessa Frances – Watching the Willows Burn Watching the Willows Burn by Jack Name & Aoife Nessa Frances Invaderband – Handcuffed Man Shoots Himself Handcuffed Man Shoots Himself by Invaderband Elephant – Envy Loah – Your World (Georgia Douglas Johnson) Parnell March – Therapy HAVVK – Automatic Soda Blonde – Small Talk Small Talk by Soda Blonde NNic –…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – May 21

    May 21, 2021 - By 

    It’s been another big week for new Irish music, with tracks and albums coming from all over the country from emerging artists and established favourites. Dig into new releases from Maria Kelly, Kojaque, Strange Boy, Elephant, NUXSENSE, VerseChorusVerse, Biig Piig, Toasted Heretic and more. Maria Kelly – eight hours Kojaque – Wickid Tongues Strange Boy – Prayers NUXSENSE – A sacred journey through the golden path A sacred journey through the golden path by NUXSENSE Rory Sweeney X Emby – Two Faces Cherym – Listening To My Head Hex Hue – Aquiver VerseChorusVerse – what if we won what if…

  • Album Premiere: Elephant – 88

    July 20, 2018 - By 

    We’re pleased to present a first listen to 88, the second album from Dundalk artist and multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke aka Elephant. Released today, both digitally and on 12″ vinyl via Pizza Pizza Records, Clarke has called the album “a soundtrack to my childhood and young adult life.” From the gossamer folk-pop spell of opener ‘Summer’ to the album’s glitchy closer ‘All These Dragons’, Clarke brilliantly filters bygone times, Proustian moments and lucid epiphanies of the past through a lens that always see melody and – the album’s crowning achievement – his vocals take centre-stage. Speaking about the release – which is dedicated to the…

  • Stream: Elephant – Waiting Game Part II

    January 18, 2018 - By 

    Dundalk artist and multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke AKA Elephant has been a TTA favourite for some time now.  Bounding with harmonic finesse and a masterfully earnest touch, his shapeshifting alt-pop craft will get the full-length treatment later this year. Ahead of that, ‘Waiting Game Part II’ is a subtle yet slick homespun effort, marrying balmy synths with the song’s stripped-back slow rock surge. At the forefront, once again, is Clarke’s neatly harmonised vocals, quietly bursting with massive heart. Elephant’s strongest single to date? We reckon so. Delve in.

  • Premiere: Elephant – Time Will Tell

    October 31, 2017 - By 

    Dundalk-based artist and multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke AKA Elephant has returned with one of his strongest single efforts to date, ‘Time Will Tell’. Featuring a wonderfully collaborative DIY video contributions from 28 different Dundalk artists, Clarke said of the Bowie-influenced track: “‘Time Will Tell’ is a song about death. Its irregular arrangement and calm-to-chaos approach is an extension of the deeper feelings within. Like a teenaged temper boiling over, grieving loss and remembering lost love. Unbalanced, unhinged and hauling ass through circumstance without having time to come to terms with where you are and how you are supposed to feel about it when…

  • Watch: Elephant – Mirrors

    August 8, 2017 - By 

    Just last week we featured ‘Mirrors’ by Dundalk-based artist and multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke AKA Elephant, an effort we called a “Bowie-coloured route with distorted, effect laden guitars, sparkling keys and prominent drums propping up Clarke’s vocals”. The third single to be taken from his forthcoming second album, the song – which is “a pining for youth, mourning its mistakes and trying to recall just when it was that you became so cynical” – has been granted another, wonderfully crafted resonance courtesy of visuals from the videographers over at Farney House. Roll on album number two.

  • Stream: Elephant – Mirrors

    August 1, 2017 - By 

    Dundalk-based artist Elephant has shared ‘Mirrors’, the third single to be taken from his forthcoming second album. Following 2015’s promising debut Hypergiant and the subsequent singles ‘Stay With Me’ and ‘Waiting Game’, the project, lead by Shane Clarke, continues to move away from its indie-folk origins and ventures further into a more ornate, full-band sound. Where Hypergiant was a feat in atmospheric acoustics and tempered vocals, ‘Stay With Me’ saw Clarke veer down the same R&B infused path as James Vincent McMorrow. ‘Waiting Game’ then, from May of this year, was a full bodied, indie-rock masterstroke complete with a woodwind interlude, chunky guitars and textured vocals. Now,…

  • Inbound: Elephant

    June 16, 2016 - By 

    With a busy few months ahead of him, including the release of new single ‘Stay With Me’ and a slot at Body & Soul at the weekend, Dundalk-based multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke AKA Elephant is an artist carving out his own wonderfully inimitable path. Eoin Murray chats to him about his debut LP, Hypergiant, new stirrings and what it means to be a musician beyond the city. Since Hypergiant came out last October what have you been up to? Well I spent the end of last year gigging the album around. I decided at the beginning of this year to take a wee break…