• Premiere: Foolish Mortal – Girl Talk

    November 30, 2018 - By 

    Just when we couldn’t conceive of Cork-based musician Laurie Shaw being any more prolific, he’s only went and started a new side-project, Foolish Mortal. And boy are we glad. Though it’s rare that we copy and paste big, wordy press releases, it gives us no shortage of pleasure to share the following wonderful spiel, along with a very first listen to the new project’s equal parts fuzzed-out and earhole-burrowing lead single, ‘Girl Talk’. The self-titled Foolish Mortal debut is out via Sunshine Cult records on December 12. “This album goes a little deeper than the white hot fuzz you can hear. The…

  • Watch: Robyn G Shiels – An Offering as Such

    November 29, 2018 - By 

    Tonight, Robyn G Shiels launches his exceptional new five-track EP, Death of the Shadows, at Belfast’s Strand Arts Centre. Originally from Kilrea, the Belfast-based singer-songwriter has, with the help of some friends including Ben McAuley, who recorded it at Belfast’s Start Together Studios, crafted a release of exquisite doom-folk depth and lyrical incision. A perfect case in point is lead single, ‘An Offering as Such’, which comes accompanied with a wonderfully minimalist, yet visually potent video courtesy of Tristan Crowe. Death of the Shadows is self-released on 10″ vinyl via Black Tragick records tomorrow.

  • Watch: Dreaming of Jupiter – Fading

    November 27, 2018 - By 

    Fast-rising Dublin three-piece Dreaming of Jupiter have eked out their own niche from a wide-spanning palette of nocturnal neo-soul, ambient, alt-pop and beyond. It’s a creative honing, with an emphasis on real attention to detail, that has served them well on their debut EP, Fading. Its title track is a perfect case in point. It’s serves up a shapeshifting four minutes of nuance and melody, driven home by vocalist Gough’s effortless vocals. Dreaming of Jupiter launch Fading at Dublin’s Button Factory on Thursday night. Support comes from Roe and Xo Mo. Stream the EP and watch the video its title track below.  

  • Watch: Cubs – Swallows Will Be Leaving

    November 27, 2018 - By 

    Comprising artists on Galway indie imprint Rusted Rail –  namely Aaron Hurley (Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon), Keith Wallace (Loner Deluxe), Cecilia Danell (A Lilac Decline), Eddie Keenan (AKA The Driftwood Manor), Scott McLoughlin (Phantom Dog Beneath The Moon) and James Rider of United Bible Studies) – Cubs‘ sedate and self-proclaimed “left-of-field folk” is equal parts phantasmal and pastoral. It’s improvisational, sylvan and snugly-woven approach that is laid bare on the group’s second album, the recently-released, Darkr Earlyr. A highlight from the release, ‘Swallows Will Be Leaving’ is a paean to nature’s passage into wintertide via the parting of hirundinidae from the skies.…

  • Album stream: SPIES – Constancy

    November 27, 2018 - By 

    Having re-emerged back in March after a three year hiatus, Dublin five-piece SPIES have released their long-awaited debut album, Constancy. From single and cascading alt-pop anthem-in-the-making ‘Ho Chi Minh’ to slow-burning closing lament ‘Love is a Dream’, via three other first-rate singles, ‘Young Dad’, ‘Broadstone’ and ‘Uriah’, it’s an assured return from a band who have well and truly hit their stride. According to singer Michael Broderick, the album primarily revolves around change and transformation: “Our attempts to remain constant in an environment that is inevitably transforming. I wanted the songs to journey through a process of coping (and not…

  • Video Premiere: Post-Punk Podge & The Technohippies – NEU!wave!

    November 30, 2018 - By 

    The hottest independent revolutionary hip-hop team in Ireland, Post-Punk Podge & The Technohippies have just produced a video for instrumental tune ‘NEU!wave!’ in celebration of their first truly excellent year, and the anniversary of the Kick Against The Pricks EP. In the space of a year, with no management or label backing, the duo have had managed a great deal of upward mobility, playing Electric Picnic, Body & Soul, and selling out upstairs at Whelan’s, earning plaudits from satirical antecedents The Rubberbandits along the way – although, in their own words the real highlight was “Limerick pulling ahead of Cork in extra time during our set at Knockanstockan”. Very much concerned with art as…

  • Arthuritis – I’m Great

    November 23, 2018 - By 

    Pan-dimensional (Cork) experimental electronic artist Arthuritis is set to release his sprawling fourth album, I’m Great through KantCope on tape & digitally next week via Bandcamp. Following up on the supremely-titled Neglected Ambient Shirts Vol. 1 and The Worst Of, alongside Arvo Party II, it’s as texturally-rich an Irish album we’ve heard this year. It’s presentation belies the presence of a real vibe here, and like that artist, it deserves to be taken much more seriously than its name & presentation suggests. In Arthur’s own words, it’s “a collection threaded together by themes of confusion and isolation”. An eclectic collection, and an internalised world in itself, where…

  • Watch: That Snaake – Scofflaw // Sisyphus

    November 20, 2018 - By 

    Remember that time we premiered the mighty ‘Scofflaw // Sisyphus’ by Dublin noise rock meddlers That Snaake? Two years on, the Paul O’Connor-fronted band are back with its suitably singular video. According to the band, the video is: a) About the budget-nightmare world of the Irish music scene b) Designed to be viewed on mobile devices as is the way of the future c) Taken from the release In The Court of the Baby Kyng out now on Little L records That’s the lowdown and you’re all the better for knowing it.

  • Album Stream: Blue Whale – Process

    November 9, 2018 - By 

    Belfast’s Blue Whale have long been something of a sonic law unto themselves. Big words and no mistake, but if you’ve managed to catch them wield what their very own brand of what the Quietus have called the band’s ilk of “chaotic, yet controlled experimental rock”, you’ll know that the high praise is justified. Six years on from their debut three-track release – and countless awe-inspiring live shows later – the quartet launch their exceptional debut album, Process, at Belfast’s Menagerie tonight (Friday, November 9). Over ten tracks, it’s a release that contorts the confines of instrumentalism, all while distilling the band’s singular brand of…

  • Album Stream: Conor Mason – On The Surface

    November 3, 2018 - By 

    As October gives way to the dark, nippy evenings of November and beyond, most of us will find ourselves turning to music – old favourites and new discoveries both – that double up as soundtracks to the seasonal transition. For some, this will(and, as we see it, absolutely should) include the extraordinary new album from Derry’s Conor Mason. Six years on from his second album, Standstill, On The Surface finds the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist at the peak of his powers in the realm of carefully-crafted, and beautifully wistful alt-pop.  From the sublime harmonic arc and flow singles ‘Follow’ and ‘On The Surface’,…