From The Bonk, Wyvern Lingo, Jehnova and Elaine Mai, to CATALAN!, luthorist, Brién and Gemma Bradley, here’s the very best Irish songs released this week, all in one place. Wyvern Lingo – Don’t Say It The Bonk – Fool Me Twice CATALAN! – Roussillon Serenade Brién – Sundriede Sundried by Brién Jehnova – All In Elaine Mai – Somewhere Else Gemma Dunleavy – Stop The Lights luthorist – kxflip Our Krypton Son – Arbor Bird Vivid Dreamer – This Is Not Living Gemma Bradley – Obsessed
Out today via Belfast imprint Third Bar, The Fight Is Not Over is a fist-clenched snapshot of a scene of artists that insist upon making their voices – and music – heard. Kristen Sinclair gets the full lowdown on the four-track live EP from Problem Patterns, Strange New Places, Sister Ghost and Gender Chores, and digs deep to trace the trajectory of a movement that has no intentions to slow down any time soon. EP artwork by Jacky Sheridan Buy The Fight Is Not Over on 12″ vinyl here. ‘The Fight Is Not Over’ reads the slogan emblazoned across the jackets…
Ahead of featuring on the first episode of Live at Guerrilla Studios tomorrow night, The Bonk have gifted us a new, typically superb EP, Songs For The Mean Time Vol. 1. Three songs “about good and bad sense,” the release finds the Phil Christie-fronted collective further distil their perfectly unpigeonholeable craft down to eight odd minutes of experimental song. Though it’s never been in doubt, The Bonk’s rep as one of the country’s most forward-pushing acts has just been doubly underscored. Delve in deep below. Songs For The Mean Time Vol. 1 by The Bonk
Something you may have missed amidst the maelstrom of new releases last Bandcamp Friday was the surprise announcement of Vivid Dreamer, a collaborative project between two of Belfast’s synth-pop creators par excellence. Today, they’re lifting the cloche on second single ‘This Is Not Living’, ahead of the release of their eponymous debut album this Sunday, July 12. Both as producers and songwriters – with the likes of Oppenheimer, Beauty Sleep, Malibu Shark Attack, Wonder Villains, amongst others – Rocky O’Reilly & Ryan McGroarty been directly or indirectly integral in the sound of no shortage of Northern Ireland’s most essential listening across the last 15-odd years. Vivid Dreamer…
In the latest installment of Monday Mixtape, Belfast-based musician Ewen Friers aka CATALAN! waxes lyrical about some of his all-time favourite songs, from WHY? and DakhaBrakha, to Orlando Weeks and Orchéstre Baka Gbiné. Los Cotopla Boyz – Me Malviaje Con Las Ganlletas Get your week started right – Los Cotopla Boyz blowing away the cobwebs, this was their debut track. I like how this is danceable and direct from the get-go but ends with that sort of proggy introspective outro, somehow it works. Orchéstre Baka Gbiné – Kopola Staying on the international voyage that is this playlist here’s a crucial track…
Two years on from its second volume, islandwide independent music compilation series A Litany of Failures has opened pre-orders and announced the tracklisting for Volume III in the series – out Friday, October 2nd. More eclectic, and more export-ready than ever, the compilation features brand new music from 22 acts across Ireland, including the first recorded output from Fifty Years of Hair (Postcard Versions/Girl Band’s Dara Kiely), The Golden Cleric (Shrug Life/Girlfriend/That Snaake) and Grave Goods (Girls Names, Pins, September Girls), as well as many of our favourites – Robocobra Quartet, Silverbacks, Rising Damp, Percolator, Extravision and many more. With cover art by Nathanaël Roman, it will be accompanied by…
Since launching back in 2011, Dublin’s Guerrilla Studios has become a vital hub in the landscape of independent Irish music. Situated under a bridged railway close to Dublin City Centre, it has produced myriad first-rate sounds from some of the country’s finest forward-pushing propositions. On Thursday, July 9, the studio space will play host to the very first episode of Live From Guerrilla Studios. The brainchild of two titans in Irish music, Ray Wingnut and John ‘Spud’ Murphy, it will feature performances from TTA favourites The Bonk and John Francis Flynn. Things kick off at 10pm from here. Stay tuned…
It’s been a huge week, featuring new EPs from the likes of MuRli, Arvo Party, And So I Watch You From Afar, Aislinn Logan and King Pallas, a bonus charity compilation of NI-based artists covering each other, as well as welcome returns from the likes of Fontaines DC, VerseChorusVerse, Gemma Dunleavy, Elaine Mai, Malojian, and many more. And in case you haven’t had it telegraphed by the independent acts of Ireland already today, Bandcamp are waiving all their takings until 8am on Saturday. MuRli – the CULTURE And So I Watch You From Afar – Odd Seal Successors by And So I Watch…
Tomorrow, Belfast’s finest purveyors of sun-kissed jangle-pop Sea Pinks will mark 10 years in existence with a new EP. Arriving exactly a decade on from the Neil Brogan-fronted band’s debut single, ‘Japanese Knotwood’, it doubles up as an ending – an inexorable line drawn under the sand – for one of the country’s most prolific and consistently on-form bands. On the heels of its title track, we’re pleased to present a first listen to the release’s new single ‘Running Down The Clock’. Sure enough, even at the eleventh hour, Sea Pinks are a band that sound like no other. Centering on the onward march…
This week’s round-up of Irish songs features new music from the wonderful, fast-rising likes of CMAT, Silverbacks, Thumper, Ailbhe Reddy, Nevvv, Goodtime John, and the comeback single from Belfast’s Charles Hurts. Silverbacks – Up The Nurses CMAT – Rodney Charles Hurts – Living Under Lockdown Squashed by Charles Hurts Thumper – Topher Grace Ailbhe Reddy – Time Difference Nevvv – Passionate/Stupid Goodtime John – Black Sunrise Hang On by Goodtime John