• Stream: Sleep Thieves – November Christmas

    December 16, 2014 - By 

    We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: even remotely attempting to write a decent Christmas song is tricky business. Thankfully, there’s some acts more cut out for the job than others – acts like Dublin electro-pop trio Sleep Thieves, who have just released an ultra-lovely, synth-driven effort called ‘November Christmas’. A self-proclaimed “dreamy, bittersweet jam”, the track is diametrically opposed to any kind of festival frivolity – which, as you might expect, works very much in its favour. You can download the track now via Soundcloud.  Stream the track below and treat yourself to the band’s debut album,…

  • Watch: I Heart The Monster Hero – Bozo vs Slug

    December 14, 2014 - By 

    Directed by Sean Zissou, Dublin lo-fi indie-pop band I Heart The Monster Hero have unveiled the video to their new single, ‘Bozo vs Slug’. It features lots of swirling camera angles and dogs – we couldn’t remotely disapprove. Watch the video for the track below, buy IHTMH’s debut album, Rhythm & Pals, via Bandcamp here and make pop into Dublin’s new-fangled Little Gem records to pick up a physical copy of ‘Bozo vs Slug’ (artwork above) from tomorrow, Monday, December 15. I Heart The Monster Hero play upstairs in Whelan’s on Friday, December 19.

  • Watch: Not Squares – Oops Said Hi

    December 12, 2014 - By 

    Featuring a sweetly simple and – for fans of their earlier material – compositionally familiar video by their drummer/vocalist Keith Winter, Belfast electro-pop dons Not Squares have resurfaced with a new track, ‘Oops Said Hi’. Taken from their forthcoming second, Strange Brew-released Bolts, it is the sound of a band simultaneously staying true to their (instantly recognisable, Vocoder and beat-driven) sound whilst breaking some new territory. Not Squares will play an all-ages show at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre on December 18 and the next installment of Seven Quarters at Dublin’s Whelans on December 19. Watch the video for ‘Oops Said Hi’…

  • Stream: OAKS – SG REX

    December 12, 2014 - By 

    Having unveiled his debut release – the eight-track Safe Haven – back in June, Belfast-based musicians James Bruce AKA OAKS has returned with ‘SG REX’. Clocking in over nine minutes, the track traverses all kinds of sonic territory, driven forward with a thoughtful restlessness, finally culminating in a wonderful, twisted throb. Stream the track via Bandcamp below. SG REX by Oaks

  • Stream: R.S.A.G: Don’t Move So Fast

    December 4, 2014 - By 

    Jeremy Hickey AKA R.S.A.G. has returned with yet another wonderfully propulsive solo effort, ‘Don’t Move So Fast’. Driven by an urgent House beat and featuring Hickey’s ever Alan Vega-esque vocals, the track was produced by Hickey, Darkin and The Kilo 1977. R.S.A.G. plays Waterford’s Central Hall on Friday, December 5 and Dublin’s Grand Social with Plutonic Dust, Dear Desert and White Collar Boy on Friday, December 12. Stream ‘Don’t Move So Fast’ via Soundcloud below.

  • Watch: Talos – Bloom

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    One of our must-see acts at the Cork Music Trail next week, Eoin French AKA Talos has unveiled the video for his latest single, ‘Bloom’. Created by the ridiculously-talented Feel Good Lost, the video is quite an intense affair, centering on the attempted (physical and psychic/spiritual) release of its hyper-distressed female protagonist. The track is released with ‘Tethered Bones’ on 12″. Watch the video below.

  • Album stream: Seán Mac Erlaine – A Slender Song

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    Released via Ergodos on lovely orange vinyl on Friday coming, Dublin-based experimental multi-instrumentalist, composer and music producer Seán Mac Erlaine is streaming A Slender Song, an oft-hypnotic ten-track release comprised of entirely improvised live noise. Speaking of the recording and improvisational impetus behind the release, Mac Erlaine told us, “All these tracks were recorded in performance. And all the performances were entirely improvised, so I guess it’s an album of improvisations from gigs around Ireland over the last four years. I did spend a good bit of time editing, mixing and producing these into something which hopefully sounds like an album – I…

  • Stream: Robocobra Quartet – ‘Knotweed/Witch Hunt’

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    We were going to post this yesterday but seeing as we featured the band in question in our latest live session – which you can and most certainly should watch here – this evening seems a little more opportune. A rather ingenuous hybrid of spoken-world punk, jazz and hip-hop, Belfast four-piece Robocobra Quartet have just let loose into the world their latest Double A-side: ‘Knotweed/Witch Hunt’. The former – featuring probably second most brilliantly abrupt intro in jazz-centric history – demonstrates the band’s more bold leanings, melting  shifting, shuddering rhythms, expertly atonal bass shapes and braying sax squeals with drummer/vocalist Chris…

  • Download: Sunburnt Jets – Stare and Pretend/Out of Luck

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    When he’s not busy making music and playing shows as part of Dublin quartet Bouts, Colin Boylan is concocting his own wonderfully earworming brand of lo-fi indie rock as Sunburnt Jets. Having spent “18 months working on them here and there”, he has just released a very impressive double A-side release: ‘Stare and Pretend’/’Out of Luck’. With self-proclaimed nods to shoegaze and dream-pop, the tracks were recorded and mixed in Boylan’s Stoneybatter home-studio, with mastering by Stephen Quinn (Patrick Kelleher, Subplots). According to Boylan, “some of the posters on the studio wall influencing the sounds included Dinosaur Jr, Warpaint and Casiotone…

  • Watch: Hozier – From Eden

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    Hands the Irish musical success story of the year, Hozier has just unveiled the video for his latest single, ‘From Eden’. Keep an eye out for Joe Laverty’s photo feature with the globetrotting Irish singer-songwriter in the December issue of our magazine and check out the new video – doubling up as something of a short film – below.