• Album Premiere & Interview: The Bonk

    October 6, 2017 - By 

    Having released a string of stellar singles over the last two years, Dublin & Cork-based experimental, orchestral, psychedelic garage rock project The Bonk have released their debut LP, The Bonk Seems To Be A Verb, and we’re delighted to premiere the entire album on its day of release. Recorded over the last few years while the outfit have been together, it’s released on cassette through Drogheda arts & culture collective Thirty Three – 45. Although the project is based around the compositions of frontman Phil Christie – of O Emperor, the substantial cast of musicians credited on the album includes some of the island’s most…

  • Stream: Other Creatures – Luxembourg

    September 27, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of this weekend’s Hard Working Class Heroes, Dublin three piece Other Creatures have released their first single, ‘Luxembourg’ from their aptly titled The First EP. The EP will be released by Trout Records where the band will be joining the likes of Saint Sister, Tandem Felix and Spies. ‘Luxembourg’ is the band’s first official release and is one loaded with jagged guitar chords and thunderous drums, giving it a post-punk flare that is brightened by the energised vocal melodies of Konrad Timon. This truly infectious track is an indie gem reminiscent of bands like Pavement, Interpol and Band of Horses. …

  • Autumns – Suffocating Brothers

    September 27, 2017 - By 

    Since starting out some time ago as a D.I.Y. shoegaze/garage-noise outfit, Derry’s Christian Donaghey has refused to sit in any one place for too long with his ongoing project, Autumns, releasing and echewing subgenre records for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Over the last couple of years, he’s grown into himself, really finding his place with his most recent EP. Finally, he’s released his debut full length, Suffocating Brothers on renowned Glasgow label Clan Destine after being written & recorded in the latter half of 2016. This material sees him continue to bring the intensely visceral Roland-fuelled rhythms of industrial & techno he’s adopted in recent times, melded…

  • Video Premiere: Sue Rynhart – Black As The Crow Flies

    September 29, 2017 - By 

    The follow-up to her 2014 debut album, Crossings – a release that was nominated for Best Jazz Album at the Irish Times‘ Ticket Awards – Dublin vocalist and composer Sue Rynhart’s new album Signals has been receiving a wave of critical acclaim from a wide range of Irish and international voices. Forging an exquisite midpoint between delicate and forceful, jazz and classical, as well as contemporary and canonical sonic realms, her emotionally-dense avant-garde craft rewards an attentive ear and repeated listen. Directed by artist Sophie Merry, we’re pleased to present a first look at the video for ‘Black As The Crow…

  • Album Premiere: Shrug Life – ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    September 27, 2017 - By 

    Concluding his review of their debut album – the eminently-tilted ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ – just the other day, TTA’s Will Murphy said, “Shrug Life deserve to be heard. Nurture them because fuck knows we’re not going to get another group like them for a long time.” To say those words are representative of our feelings about this release would be a towering understatement. We’ve watched on with glee as the Dublin trio of guitarist/vocalist Danny Carroll, bassist Keith Broni and drummer Josh Donnelly have evolved into one of the country’s most peerlessly engaging acts over the last couple of years – something that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ confines over eleven tracks…

  • Video Premiere: Tuath – Cuz Why!?

    September 25, 2017 - By 

    Arguably the northern province’s foremost purveyors of hepped-up-on-goofballs psychedelia, the bilingual Tuath, have a new single, ‘Cuz Why?!’ and we’re delighted to premiere it here. As opposed to the usual shoegaze & trip-hop-laced excursions the band are used to – watch the video for their last single, ‘Youth‘ – filtered through frontman Robert Mulhern’s psychedelic lens, this song adds post-punk to their considerable palette. Mulhern has drawn a consistent thematic throughline through Tuath, of the questioning of accepted ideals & organised ideology. They continue to effuse their worldview with a half-maniacal cackle, half-nihilistic-shrug, helped along by its kitchen sink absurdist imagery. He says of the…

  • Album Premiere: Eoin Dolan – UBIQUE

    September 22, 2017 - By 

    For whatever combination of reasons, Galway has long been petri-dish for breeding some first-rate solo artists. One that has consistently kept our attention over the last while, Eoin Dolan is easily right up there with the most effortlessly compelling. Something of a whizz in the realm of surf-speckled, throwback indie-pop, Dolan has been drip-feeding tracks some stellar singles as of late, including ‘I Can Make You Hurt At Will‘ and ‘One Girl‘ earlier in the year, and most recently ‘Good Human Being?’ and ‘It Is Good That We Dream‘, which was released just this week. Comprising those four tracks and seven more, Dolan’s…

  • Premiere: Carriages – Hardest Mile

    September 21, 2017 - By 

    Dublin duo Harry Bookless and Aaron Page AKA Carriages are an act that we’ve followed closely over the last few years. Spearheading an experimental folk aesthetic that comprises nature, open spaces and facets of the modern world, their music masterfully blurs the lines between the external world and internal processes, as well as electronic textures and organic sounds. Doubling up as the debut release on Homebeat Presents (an imprint we’re very excited about looking ahead to next year and beyond), the pair’s forthcoming new EP Movement is a five-track masterstroke melding Bookless’ found sound electronic atmospherics and elemental production with the inimitable soulful and…

  • Watch: Eoin Dolan – It Is Good That We Dream

    September 19, 2017 - By 

    Eoin Dolan‘s music has always been characterised by its appreciation of the simple, finer things that we capture in moments and hold onto for years. Be that reminiscence of a holiday (‘Spain’), the rustic technicolour imagery of a seaside casino (Placid Ocean) or the woozy glue of a lost romance (‘Heavenly Possessed’), the tempered psych-folk backdrops have always fit beautifully with the Galwegian’s storytelling. Next week, Dolan will release his second full length album, UBIQUE, via Galway’s Citóg Records the singles from which have indicated a sharper turn into the psych pop “revival” stylings championed by the likes of Devendra Banhart and O Emperor. ‘It Is…

  • Video Premiere: John Blek – Salt In The Water

    September 18, 2017 - By 

    More than many of his peers and others of his ilk further afield, Cork songsmith John Blek is a master of subtlety in realms of folk-informed pop. Set for release on October 6, his third studio album, Catharsis Vol. 1, is a release that – as its title duly attests – stems from some personal hardship. Speaking of the release, Blek said: “I spent much of the early part of 2017 in and out of hospital with some mysterious illness that was intent on wasting my now 30-year-old body. My energy was at an all-time low and all that gave me…