• Watch: All Tvvins – Thank You

    March 19, 2015 - By 

    Having received its premiere on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 programme last month, Dublin duo All Tvvins have unveiled the rather fabulous video for their triumphant debut single, ‘Thank You’. In January we summed up a live version of the track, released last year as “A charming and bewitching math-pop track released as a live video from the post-Adebisi supergroup. Whip-smart in the composition, and beautifully restrained in the delivery, it is a wonderful dichotomy of heart-warming melodies and existential uncertainty, sealed with searing, aching swell guitar.” The video for the single – a hyper-disco, ballerina-centric mini-masterpiece – was directed by Brendan…

  • Stream: Rusangano Family – Wasteman

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    Formerly known as God Knows + mynameisjOhn, month we had the pleasure of bearing witness to Limerick’s Rusangano Family live in a filming of the Parlour (in which were also guests) at Whelan’s, Dublin. Both on and off camera, the guys – one of the featured acts in our 15 for ’15 feature – delivered an electrifying brace of tracks including the equal parts excellent and ethical ‘Wasteman’. Now, ahead of their midnight performance at our second birthday party at Dublin’s Twister Pepper on Saturday, May 2, the trio have released a studio version of the track. Featuring guitar from Steve Ryan of Windings,…

  • Watch: Patrick Gardiner – I’m Your Creation

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    Cornwall-based, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Patrick Gardiner is a methodical songsmith that thrives on the intricacies of his craft. From the poise and refrain of his carefully-considered words to specific chord changes and structures, he has really made an impression on us, live, on more than one occasion. Three years on from his self-released debut EP, Save Myself, the Co. Down musician will release its five-track follow-up, Carcassonne, on April 1. On first listen, it’s a subtly eclectic mix of acoustic tale-telling, Gardiner’s earnest delivery on each track hovering confidently over full-band tracks underpinned with some instantly memorable melodic threads and pop nuances. Ahead…

  • Bee Mick See – The Belfast Yank

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    Does belonging to a location make an album better? Is Springsteen as interesting if you remove New Jersey or Nebraska? What about NWAand Compton? If this is the case, then rapper Bee Mick See’s debut Belfast Yank deserves some serious credit. The album is entirely engulfed in Belfast. Its language, culture and people are the subjects of various tracks ranging from loving portraits (‘Belfast Slang’) to lacerating polemics (‘Natural Scents’). Even his flow, which owes an obvious debt to Slug from Atmosphere, is heavily accented; it could only belong to this city. In spite of its overproduced beats, which bares a welcome resemblance to Malibu Shark Attack, it’s a strangely emotionally honest album. BeeMickSee is surprisingly…

  • Stream: Arborist – Twisted Arrow (feat. Kim Deal)

    March 16, 2015 - By 

    In one of the more curious, unlikely – and, let’s face, envy-inducing – collaborations headed by a Irish singer-songwriter in quite some time, Belfast-based folk songsmith Mark McCambridge AKA Arborist has unveiled his latest effort, featuring backing vocals from none other than Kim Deal. Speaking about the collaboration, McCambridge said: “The harmony part was always there, from the moment the song was written and recorded here in Belfast.  But it needed a unique voice.  Fancifully, we drew-up a shortlist of desirable candidates with Kim far and away top of the list.  So, we contacted her – as you do – and after a…

  • Watch: Meltybrains? – Donegal

    March 13, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of jetting off to SXSW next week – and our Belfast show with them and Blue Whale at QUBSU’s Bar Sub on Friday, April 10 – Dublin experimental band Meltybrains? have unveiled the video for the stupendous ‘Donegal’. When the track first reared its heard at the start of February we called it a “spirited, expansive ode to escapism – reverb-laced lingering vocal lines and shuffling rhythms marry in a mighty mesh of fist-clenched, impassioned abandon.” Donegal will be released as part of the band’s debut vinyl release, ‘Donegal/IV’, on February 16. Buy it here. Watch the video for ‘Donegal’…

  • Watch: Skelocrats – Zirconium Heart

    March 11, 2015 - By 

    Not that you need reminding, but those notoriously sonically incestuous Popical Island lads are a quare bunch of busybodies this weather. Having unveiled the video for his very own ‘The Loneliest Master’ just yesterday, Bobby Aherne AKA No Monster Club is the directorial maestro behind the cosmic-romance themed video for Skelocrats‘ effortlessly earworming ‘Zirconium Heart’. The song will feature on the Dublin band’s forthcoming album, Bella Bella, which is launched at Dublin’s Bello Bar with Ginnels and Switzerland on Friday, April 17.  The band will also play Sweeney’s, Dublin on May 9 and  Galway’s Roisin Dubh with Paddy Hanna on May 14.…

  • Watch: Cloud Castle Lake – Glacier

    March 11, 2015 - By 

    Last month, we called ‘Glacier’ by Dublin trio Cloud Castle Lake “a wonderfully-layered effort, beautifully disentangling over five-and-a-half minutes, that sees Daniel McAuley’s high falsetto vocals take centre-stage yet again – and how.” Now the Rian Trench-produced song – set for release via Happy Valley Records on March 16 – has a suitably intense video to accompany it. Directed by Cáit Fahey, the video is a shadowy, contorted affair, nicely interspersed with bursts of light and colour. Cloud Castle Lake will play Galway’s Roisin Dubh on March 26, Dublin’s Workman’s Club on March 27 and Limerick’s Kasbah Social Club on March 28.

  • Watch: No Monster Club – The Loneliest Master

    March 10, 2015 - By 

    Featuring Bobby Aherne from the band tackling the most fearsome of extreme sports – thumb wrestling – Dublin’s No Monster Club have unveiled the video for ‘The Loneliest Master’. Featuring a support cast comprised of Owen Colgan (Buzz from Hardy Bucks) and a host of local comedians and musicians on Popical Island, the video was created by Giles Brody and Conor O’Toole. ‘The Loneliest Master’ is taken from People Are Weird, which is launched at Dublin’s Bello Bar this Saturday evening. Stream/buy it here and read our review of it here.

  • Watch: Princess – Black Window

    March 9, 2015 - By 

    One of our main 15 For ’15 acts, Dublin dream-pop Princess have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘Black Window’, an accompaniment that more than tips its visual hat to the disembodied female mouth in Samuel Beckett’s ‘Not I‘. In our post of the track last month, we called it “one of their shining moments to date, covering more ground in their perpetually evolving blend of shoegaze, krautrock and noise, as heard on the pair of singles and EP they’ve so-far released.” Princess play the following Irish dates in March and April: March 20: Whelan’s, Dublin March 28: TDC/Triskel, Cork April 11:…