• Watch: Somadrone feat. Jape – Invitation

    August 14, 2015 - By 

    The follow-up to 2013’s hugely impressive The First Wave, Dublin producer Neil O’Connor AKA Somadrone is set to release his fifth album, Oracle, on September 18. The first track to be lifted from that, ‘Invitation’ – featuring fellow Redneck Manifesto alumni Richie Egan AKA Jape – is a hugely encouraging taste as to what’s in store from the forthcoming eight track-release. Accompanied by a video courtesy of Kevin Mc Gloughlain and Leon Giblin, ‘Invitation’ is perfectly balanced between sleep and release, its opening two minutes of teasing sparseness yielding to two minutes of throbbing, mildly kaleidoscopic electronica, each bar yielding to a new detail. Stream/download the…

  • Cruising – Cruising

    August 14, 2015 - By 

    Sometimes a band name can elucidate the direction in which its songs will travel.  Cruising are a case in point, named after a book/film delving into the dark underworld of a serial killer who picks up homosexual men from the New York S&M scene to murder.  EP cover emblazoned with a black leather biker jacket, band name studded across the shoulders, and PVC leather hat a la Jesse “Boots Electric” Hughes, worn in promo photos runs with the theme. There’s more than a whisper of iconic female rockers like Joan Jett, Siouxsie Sioux and Poly Styrene.  Understandably so, given that…

  • Watch: Music For Dead Birds – English Weed

    August 10, 2015 - By 

    Having first caught our attention back in 2011 with the stellar, scuzzy lo-fi of The Pope’s Sister, Galway/Mayo “anti-folk” duo Music For Dead Birds will release a double A-Side (artwork above) later this month. One half of that release, their ruminating new track ‘English Weed’ – accompanied with a typically oblique video – conjures hooks and refrains from early/mid-Nineties lo-fi indie rock, coursing forth, aghast, hoarse and lamenting in a perfectly unpolished fashion. Best of all, it confirms Music For Dead Birds’ inimitable, acoustic-driven sound, set in motion with And Then It Rained For Seven Days back in 2009.

  • EP Premiere: Feather Beds – Ah Stop

    August 6, 2015 - By 

    Having just returned to Dublin following two years living in Quebec, Dublin producer Michael Orange AKA Feather Beds has hit the ground of his homeland running with Ah Stop, a stellar new EP was recorded “in the middle of a particularly gruelling and sub-zero winter in Montreal” back in February. An appendix of sorts to his debut album, The Skeletal System, which was released at the start of the year, the EP shows a self-described “marked shift in direction towards a more electronic feel and brings an introduction to the second full-length album, which is scheduled for release in 2016.” As just under…

  • Download: An Taobh Tuathail Vol 7

    July 22, 2015 - By 

    Not merely the finest Irish radio programme, An Taobh Tuathail on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta is nothing short of a consistently impeccable underground music institution. Presented by Cian Ó Cíobháin, the show has proven an indispensable go-to criterion for fresh, unusual and glorious sounds for innumerable listeners both across the country and throughout the world since starting way back in 1999. Eight years on from the release of its first collection, the seventh volume of ATT’s free, all-but annual compilation – featuring tracks by the likes of Orcas, Loner Deluxe, Kode9, Colleen, Rival Consoles, Nils Frahm, Sufjan Stevens and Mica Levi – is a perfect place to…

  • EP Premiere + Interview: THVS – Everyday Hexes

    July 15, 2015 - By 

    Forming from the embers of Belfast riff-wielding institution Comply or Die, heavy rock three-piece THVS are on the precipice of completing the first stage of their instantly ear-grabbing metamorphosis. Officially released on Friday (July 17), we’re pleased to present a first listen of their expectedly visceral four-track EP, Everyday Hexes, also chatting to frontman Michael Smyth about the writing and recording of the EP, the formation of the band and their plans for the future. Hi Michael. First thing’s first, how did THVS come about? The band came about after a band practice got cancelled so Matt and I decided to go up and play anyway.…

  • Watch: Pocket Promise – Music For The Twelfth

    July 14, 2015 - By 

    Having been on extended hiatus for a few years, Co. Tyrone band Pocket Promise remain of Ireland’s all-time truly great alt-pop bands. With some expectation suggestive of a reunion of sorts in the pipeline at some point in the future, the band have re-emerged, in some form, with the up until-now unreleased ‘Music For The Twelfth’. With its backdrop of the Northern Irish marching season, the song – over a decade old at this point – should be familiar to anyone caught the band (compised of members that went on to form Seven Summits) during their initial, country-spanning tenure of the mid-noughties. Speaking of…

  • Stream: Come On Live Long – Speak Up

    June 26, 2015 - By 

    Having positively enamoured with their previous single ‘Trough’ (which we premiered back in January) Dublin’s Come On Live Long have returned with a fluttering, kaleidoscopic, seven-minute alt-pop gem, ‘Speak Up’. Recorded in August last year, the recording of the track was “an opportunity for the band to try out a new way to collaborate, adopting a different approach to communicating and arranging the piece”. We’re big fans. Stream the track below.

  • Stream: Oh Volcano – Rush Of Blood

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Forming from the embers of General Fiasco early last year, Belfast brother duo Owen and Enda Strathern AKA Oh Volcano have consistently piqued our interest over the last couple of years with sporadic live shows and singles including ‘Oceans’ and ‘See No Evil’. Taken from their forthcoming debut, Don’t Know Love, new single ‘Rush of Blood’ goes one further, proving a very considered, wonderfully produced piece of electro-pop. Oh Volcano play their next show at Belfast’s Empire on July 3, alongside Goons, Dutch Schultz and Parapa Palace. Stream ‘Rush of Blood’ below. Artwork by Stuart Bell.

  • Watch: Night Trap – Someone Like You

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Having delivered a stellar set at our second birthday show at Twisted Pepper back in May, Dublin duo Night Trap have unveiled some delightful throwback electro-pop in the form of ‘Someone Like You’. Propulsive in all the right places, simply grooving forth in honour of the duo’s obvious influences, the song proves uncannily earworming after a couple of listens. Seriously, give it two listens… you’ll be humming it all day. And possibly tomorrow. Night Trap launch the single with Patrick Kelleher, L/B/W and Old Moon at Dublin’s TenterHooks Gigspace on Friday night. Created by Andy Walsh, watch the video for…