• EP Premiere: NERVVS – A Mixtape of Love Vol. One

    January 18, 2017 - By 

    Dublin’s finest self-proclaimed “sick-wave” (noise rock, to you and I) duo NERVVS caught our attention back in 2015 with their debut EP, Death House. In the two years since, the pair have been active on the scene in Dublin, sharing scenes with some TTA favourites including That Snaake and Naoise Roo. Produced by Chris Barry, who has worked with Myles Manley and Cat Palace, their forthcoming EP A Mixtape of Love Vol. One is – to get a little alliterative – a fervent, five-track slab of first-rate, fucked-off fury conjuring the likes of Nomeansno, Bleach-era Nirvana, Fugazi, Butthole Surfers, early Flipper and Sebadoh at their…

  • Premiere: exmagician – Desperado (Remix)

    December 22, 2016 - By 

    Rounding off a busy year that saw them unleash their stellar, Bella Union-released debut album, Scan The Blue, Belfast’s Daniel Todd and James Smith AKA exmagician have bookended 2016 with the release of a wonderfully simmering High Noon remix of STB highlight ‘Desperado’. Following on from Jacknife Lee’s sprawling 18-minute remix of single ‘Job Done’ and the band’s own sublime re-imaging of ‘Tear On Let Off Steam‘, the track – which sees harmonies and rhythmic patterns come to the fore – is stripped back to its skeletal core, bursting forth with a subtly propulsive electro swagger. Dig it below. Photo for the…

  • Album Premiere: Fixity – The Things In The Room

    December 1, 2016 - By 

    Back in August we rather giddily shared two new releases from Cork experimental musician Dan Walsh AKA Fixity. Now, fourth months later, we’re very pleased to present a first listen to Walsh’s new, rather special four-track album, The Things In The Room. Recorded in Malmo in February, the release features Walsh on drums alongside Swedish improvisers, tenor saxophonist Emil Nerstrand (Brigaden/Heavy Water/The Nod), guitarist Nils Andersson (Ljom/Ava) and bassist Fredrik Persson (Sista Bossen/The Good Morning Spider/Leo Kall/Cassus). Comprises four pieces composed by Walsh explored in collective improvisation with other individuals, each performance was captured in one take with everyone in the…

  • Premiere: Conor Mason – On The Surface

    November 23, 2016 - By 

    Conjuring the wistful wanderlust of both Grandaddy and Villagers ‘On The Surface’ by Derry singer-songwriter Conor Mason is a song that “looks at feelings that arise when considering things that we can’t yet explain, the mystery of the unknown”. Taken from a forthcoming EP set for release at the end of January, it’s a real gem, too: mining solace from uncertainty, culminating in a call to recognise the beauty outside the static in our heads, it makes for a wonderfully crafted five minutes, revealing Mason to be a master of hook, harmony and heart.

  • Premiere: Arborist – I Heard Him Leaving

    September 12, 2016 - By 

    With a sound in which subtlety holds sway where a scream would fall short, Mark McCambridge AKA Arborist is a craftsman of nuance. With his debut full-length album, Home Burial, set for release on November 11 via Kirkinrola Records, the Belfast-based singer-songwriter’s recent single ‘A Man of My Age’ garnered comparisons to such venerated figures as Leonard Cohen, Bill Callahan and Jason Molina with very good reason. In knowing there’s no need to clothe a skeleton, McCambridge’s knowingly stark, wonderfully composed songs put the cutting phrase and heavy allusion centre-stage, each lyric lit by softly lilting Americana folk betraying both longing and hope…

  • Premiere: Oh Joy – Habits & Recreations

    March 21, 2016 - By 

    Recorded with Liam Mulvaney at Bow Lane Studio, the forthcoming self-titled EP by Dublin alt-rock band Oh Joy faithfully throws back whilst keeping a fixed eye on the present-day, fuzzed-out ruminations. Counting the likes of Pixies, Elliott Smith and DIIV amongst their main influences, there’s an authenticity to the trio’s intent-drenched throwdowns, not least on the EP’s lead single ‘Habits & Recreations’, which we’re pleased to premiere here. Oh Joy will be released at the end of the month.

  • Premiere: Hazing – Nervous Signals (Soil Creep remix)

    March 21, 2016 - By 

    Released back in February, Joy Void by Dutch/Irish artist Hazing is a debut EP that demands your our attention from the get go. Evoking the likes of Wild Nothing and Ariel Pink over its four tracks, there is a somnambulist glow woven throughout the release, conjuring late-night city traipses, head down, hands in pockets, driven forth by wayward thoughts of belonging and connection in a sleeping urban jungle.Two months after it dropped, Dublin producer Aidan Wall AKA Soil Creep has re-imagined lead single ‘Nervous Signals’ in superb fashion. Excavating beats and bleeps from the track’s placid fabric, it re-frames the track in such a…

  • Premiere + Interview: Ryan Vail – Invert

    March 4, 2016 - By 

    Whether you’re a newcomer or have been following his slow-burning, revelatory evolution as of late, Derry’s Ryan Vail has always commanded a domain that he can call his own. A master of subtlety, nuance and the hallowed space between the notes, his debut EP These Words revealed fully-formed promise that has only grown (and grown into itself) in the half-decade since. Whether you look to EPs including Fade and Grow, tracks such as ‘Sunlight’ and ‘Days’, superb new single ‘Wounds’ or Sea Legs, his well-received concept collaboration with Ciaran Lavery, Vail’s music and the sphere he conjures via slowly bobbing, synth-laden electronica has always…

  • EP Premiere: Warriors of the Dystotheque – Return To Coney

    March 4, 2016 - By 

    A self-proclaimed “dystopian journey deep into the heart of modern trip hop and gloomtronica” Return to Coney is the second EP from multi-national outfit Warriors of the Dystotheque. Founded by Derry’s Jonny Mac, the quartet’s craft is a darkly blend of slick, lo-fi soundscapes in the vein of Massive Attack and UNKLE, rounded off by a deft cinematic scope and solid command of layered, trip-hop leaning instrumentalism. Released via Tigre Fair today, Return to Coney is inspired by cult 70s film The Warriors and particularly one of the final moments of the film, where The Warriors return to their home turf – Coney…

  • EP Premiere: Bouts – Unlearn

    February 29, 2016 - By 

    Self-described as a “pop-grunge noise rock band with an inherent, unashamed attachment to big pop hooks” Dublin indie rock quartet Bouts have well and truly lived up to that explication over the last few years. Having fully arrived with their stupendous debut album Nothing Good Gets Away back in 2013, today marks the release of a five-track EP that sees their craft as downright convincing as ever, in spite of two members living overseas. Recorded at various points in 2015, at no point during the process where all members present together – a fact that both underlines the studio efforts of John Murphy and Shane…