• Watch: Villagers – A Trick of the Light

    June 12, 2018 - By 

    Coinciding with the announcement of his forthcoming fourth album, The Art of Pretending To Swim, Conor O’Brien’s Villagers are back with a new single, ‘A Trick of the Light’. Blurring the lines between full-bodied folk-pop splendour and late-1990s R&B groove, it’s a four-minute curveball that hits in all the right places. Sealing the deal for the single is a typically first-rate video from Bob “Midas Touch” Gallagher. Featuring O’Brien in the guise of a rather lovely lady, it’s a wonderfully surrealist accompaniment capturing the pleasures and heart-pangs of love, belonging and loss. The Art of Pretending to Swim is out via Domino…

  • Inbound: Dreaming of Jupiter

    May 29, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of a busy year that will see the release of their debut EP, we talk to hotly-tipped Dublin trio Dreaming of Jupiter about what defines their sound, milestones to date, their summer festival-conjuring new single, their favourite Irish music, and what the rest of 2018 holds. You’ve just released ‘Right Kind of Love’. It’s a real earworming gem evoking straight-up summer festival vibes. Tell us about the writing and recording of this track. We are really happy to have put this track out into the world. We have a writing process which we have developed over time. We pre-produce…

  • Watch: Our Krypton Son – Falling In Love Is A Suicide Mission

    May 23, 2018 - By 

    Quite possibly the island of Ireland’s finest songwriter, Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son has returned with new single ‘Falling In Love Is A Suicide Mission’. A carefully-crafted, elegiac peak from his critically-devoured second album Fleas & Diamonds, the single is accompanied with wonderfully minimalist visuals courtesy of Tristian Crowe. Watch the video and have read of an exclusive written accompaniment to the track titled ‘The Old Plymouth’ by McConaghy below. The Old Plymouth Harry Dean Stanton lights a cigarette and stands at the water’s edge. The flickering lights of Dupont tremble in a graveyard of stars. He snorts at…

  • Michael Black – Memoirs

    May 29, 2018 - By 

    Having recently been featured on the official Piano Day 2018 playlist, curated by Nils Frahm, Belfast-based multi-instrumentalist & composer Michael Black is set to release his debut album, Memoirs, on June 13. Across its fifteen tracks of unaccompanied piano, Black weaves the personal with the classical, evoking contemporary classic composers like Arvo Pärt and minimalism’s man-of-the-moment, Nils Frahm. “I understood that by releasing something as intimate as Memoirs, I’d leave myself very exposed and somewhat vulnerable. but I couldn’t expect the listener to dwell and reflect on these thoughts in their own manner unless I provided an honest account in the first place. My wish is that Memoirs…

  • Watch: Glass Wings – For A Little While

    May 17, 2018 - By 

    Glass Wings is the music-making moniker of Belfast-based artist Stephen Jones. Following on from the release of Jana from Barcelona – a carefully-crafted, acclaimed EP released back in May last year – he has recently recorded his forthcoming full-length debut album with Phil D’Alton of Master & Dog. Lead single ‘For A Little While’ set the tone for a body of work exploring personal and societal coming of age in an increasingly uncertain world. Directed, filmed and edited by Josh Brogan, check out the video for the single below.

  • Stream: Oh Joy – Cab Sad

    May 17, 2018 - By 

    We have a lot of time for Dublin indie rock trio Oh Joy here at TTA. They mean it, man. They really mean it. Recorded by Liam Mulvaney at Bow Lane, the brisk, heat-stung ache of new single ‘Cab Sad’ captures that intent, psychic wanderlust and heartbreak across 141 all-too-short seconds. Taken from their forthcoming EP, Good Grief – which is released on June 8 – the song is, as you might gleam from even a cursory listen, “about falling in love and how it can make you feel like a pathetic mess”. Ollie Moyles, Oh Joy lead songwriter wrote the…

  • Premiere: Heroes in Hiding – Berlin

    May 15, 2018 - By 

    The second single from their forthcoming debut album, Actor, ‘Berlin’ by Dublin quartet Heroes in Hiding is a cathartically-driven effort exploring “a want for change and a sense of belonging, or lack thereof.” According to the Joe Carroll-fronted band, “The narrator has become fed up with their surroundings, and fantasises about a new life in Berlin. They are convinced that by moving away they will be able to throw off the shackles of their old life and start afresh, leaving the anxious surroundings of their current world behind.” Exploring “a ‘moment’ of uncertainty in life – a moment where we are…

  • Premiere: Switzerland – Waste of Time

    May 14, 2018 - By 

    A song about “the futility of arguments and going with the flow” ‘Waste of Time’ by Dublin quartet Brian Walsh, Shane Murphy, Al Condon and Enda Canavan AKA Switzerland is, hands down, the finest dose of sleepy, jangle-heavy, Pavement-leaning loveliness we’ve heard in quite some time. Comprised of members of Drunken Boat, Hello Moon, Land Lovers, No Monster Club and Paddy Hanna, Switzerland will launch the single at Thomas House on May 19. You should go to that, and have a first listen to the single (and look at its video) below.

  • Watch: Saint Sister – Twin Peaks

    May 11, 2018 - By 

    Saint Sister have returned with their first new offering since last years ‘Causing Trouble’. ‘Twin Peaks’ is the first single from the bands forthcoming album Shape of Silence and shows a change of pace for the Northern Irish duo. While sonically not as dark as ‘Madrid’ or ‘Tinman’, it’s just as emotive. Here, the pair explore new textures while retaining all the best elements of their sound. Beautiful vocal textures and lush harp strings combine with driving drum and bass rhythms to create a satisfying interplay. Working once again with Hozier bassist, Alex Ryan, Doherty explains “The three of us…

  • Stream: Shrug Life – Your Body (Acoustic)

    May 10, 2018 - By 

    Of all the songs written in the lead-up to this month’s Irish abortion referendum, ‘Your Body’ by Shrug Life strikes a particularly emphatic chord.  Originally released in September 2016, the song – with its refrain of “Your body is not your body/It’s the property of church and state” – has taken on a whole new sense of import with a new stripped-back version recently filmed in an abandoned Magdalene laundry by David Knox. Though the original has no dearth of impact, this version, featuring Shrug Life frontman Danny Carroll and vocalist Máire Carr delivering a sobering and masterfully poignant rendition of the…