• Premiere: Nylophone – Shy One

    January 27, 2021 - By 

    Wicklow-based artist Niall Woods aka Nylophone marked his arrival last year with well-received singles ‘Summer Feeling’ and ‘Let’s Go Driving’. A few months on, Woods has returned with ‘Shy One’, a deftly-produced dose of indie-folk whose lyrics are based off W.B Yeats’ ‘To an Isle in the Water’. It’s an approach that works wonders here. Featuring finger-picked guitar by Jonny Dillon aka Automatic Tasty and percussion/production by TTA favourite Rian Trench of Solar Bears & Panik Attaks, it’s a wonderfully bucolic offering that, in Woods’ own words, centres on “a longing and a desire to escape from something or somewhere.” Have a first listen…

  • Premiere: An Cárthach – ARBATAX

    January 27, 2021 - By 

    An Cárthach is the music-making moniker of Cork beatmaker and producer Diarmait Mac Cárthaigh. Arriving off the back of debut mixtape Grand In General, which was released at the tail-end of last year, ‘Arbatax’ doubles up as a slick and neatly understated re-introduction to an artist carving out a niche in a thriving South West solo scene. Featuring Brian Dunlea (Moken Troll) on bass, and by a video courtesy of The Lawd Mayor Colm Walsh, it’s a self-proclaimed “goat-inspired” instrumental named for the Sardinian village where much of the video footage was shot. Ahead of new material in the coming months, have…

  • Premiere: Gaze is Ghost – Wild Geese/Feather and Bone

    January 26, 2021 - By 

    We’re calling it now: 2021 is the year of Gaze is Ghost. The recording moniker of Northern Irish musician Laura McGarrigle, the project saw TTA favourite Keith Mannion aka Slow Place Like Home and Casey Miller get on board back in 2018. Two years on, the trio offer up two carefully-woven, wonderfully ruminative gems. Inspired by the “fragile beauty” of the Scottish coastline where McGarrigle currently live, ‘Wild Geese’ is equal parts gossamer and quietly defiant, McGarrigle’s cyclical patterns and recurring refrain of “I’ll try to do better” doubling as a mantra for future days. The full band ‘Feather and Bone’,…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – January 22nd

    January 22, 2021 - By 

    After a relatively fallow couple of weeks there, here’s the very best Irish tracks released this week, featuring Myles Manley, Sal Dulu, Uladh + Joshua Burnside, A Smyth, Tolu Makay, This Ship Argo, Rory Nellis, The Gauze, Lauren Bird and more Sal Dulu – Girl Sal Dulu · Girl Myles Manley – Shiteshow This Ship Argo – Hiding Like a Coward In The Smoke Always the Bees: Never the Honey by This Ship Argo New Pagans – Christian Boys Kieran O’Brien – Arms Open Without End by Kieran O’Brien Joshua Burnside – The Only Thing I Fear (Uladh remix) The…

  • Monday Mixtape: Maija Sofia

    January 25, 2021 - By 

    Galway singer-songwriter Maija Sofia talks us through some of her all-time favourite songs, featuring Kate Bush, Planxty, Katie Kim, Joni Mitchell and more. Katie Kim – Pause I keep coming back to Katie Kim’s 2012 album Cover & Flood since watching her collaboration with Radie Peat. It’s such a special record to me, I came to it as a teenager and deeply fell in love with its strange, ghostly world of genuinely amazing songwriting and murky, deep sea drones and reverbs. I’m such a Katie Kim fan it’s almost embarrassing, and this song literally makes me cry, I keep going…

  • Premiere: Boyfrens – Kiss Dance Sweat Move

    January 21, 2021 - By 

    The songwriting and production project of Dublin-based artist Jack Hevey, the music of Boyfrens strikes a slick midpoint between tightly-produced electronica & synth-pop, threaded with deft elements of hip-hop and R&B. Having launched in 2019 while he was completing a Musicology MA in Amsterdam, Hevey on new, the forward-pushing electro-pop gem ‘Kiss, Dance, Sweat, Move’. Speaking about the track, Hevey said, “‘Kiss, Dance, Sweat, Move’ was written and recorded with dimly lit dance floors and cramped smoking areas in mind, where the freedom to brush up against one another, touch, groove and embrace hasn’t been lost. The track meditates on one…

  • Video Premiere: Gnarkats – All The Time

    January 21, 2021 - By 

    Ahead of the release of their highly-anticipated new The Dreamer EP tomorrow, we’re pleased to share a first look at the video for ‘All The Time’ by Belfast three-piece Gnarkats. Delivering another dose of the band’s increasingly earworming brand of alt-rock, the track now comes accompanied by a stellar video courtesy of photographer and filmmaker Niall Fegan. Watch it below. Speaking about The Dreamer EP, which saw the band team up once more with producer and The Answer guitarist Paul Mahon, vocalist/bassist Louis Nelson said, “Lyrically, it’s our expression of a drastic change within our lives, and how we dealt with those problems. “It was…

  • Monday Mixtape: Fears

    January 18, 2021 - By 

    Musician, producer and TULLE Collective founder Constance Keane aka Fears gives us a run-down of some of her favourite tracks right now, from Mitski and Francois Hardy, to Laura Groves and Hannah Peel. Laura Groves – Foolish Game This is off A Private Road, which came out in December. The entire EP is stun, but this video transports me to a world I wanna be in. Laura is an incredible songwriter and I’m really excited seeing her release self-produced music now too. Hannah Peel – Emergence in Nature From her upcoming album Fir Wave. This song only came out but I…

  • Stream: This Ship Argo – Hum

    January 15, 2021 - By 

    In recent years – and particularly in the last, thanks to Bandcamp – we’ve seen the rise of a wide net of self-produced superlative electronic artists. In the Northern Irish cul de sac, you have the increasingly world-beating Arvo Party, synthwave retromancer Alpha Chrome Yayo, and more recently, Aileen McKenna, AKA This Ship Argo has been cropping up on the radar with her singular brand of experimental electronic pop. At turns earworming, introspective and profoundly moving, TSA strikes a rare midpoint between densely-layered chamber pop, and ruminative minimalism. Her new single ‘Hum’ is out today, accompanied by alternate mixes from Arvo Party & A Cappella, following…

  • Watch: Hannah Peel – Emergence in Nature

    January 15, 2021 - By 

    As one of the country’s most masterfully explorative composers, Hannah Peel has delivered some forward-pushing gems over the years. From 2011’s The Broken Wave, to last year’s Chalk Hill Blue, she has always delivered sounds that push beyond the here and now. On March 26th, the Northern Irish musician returns with a brand new album, Fir Wave. Lifted from that, lead single ‘Emergence in Nature’ is an exercise in pure ingenuity. Across four and a bit minutes, it makes for an unravelling tapestry of curveballing electronica, sealed by Peel’s compositional Midas touch. Pre-order Fir Wave here and watch the video for ‘Emergence in Nature’ below.