• Album Stream: Sea Pinks – Watercourse

    May 26, 2017 - By 

    Just off the back of the release of their fourth album, Dreaming Tracks, Belfast three-piece Sea Pinks graced the cover of the second issue of our magazine back in November, 2014. Almost three years on, album number six, Watercourse, finds the Neil Brogan-fronted band at the peak of their most ruminative, surf-dappled and jangle-popped best. Striking yet another keen balance between dream and power pop, the album’s ten tracks slot into a half-hour running time – testament, not that it’s necessarily needed, to the refined punch and finesse of the band’s craft to date. Speaking of the album, Brogan said, “The…

  • Premiere: Swimmers Jackson – Summer’s Here

    May 26, 2017 - By 

    An “ode to the welcome stretch in the Dublin summer’s evenings, spent largely at the Portobello section of the canal in South Dublin” ‘Summer’s Here’ by Dublin’s Niall Jackson AKA Swimmers Jackson is the most charming summer song™ that we’ve heard from an Irish artist in quite some time. Equal parts celebratory and wistful, the single finds Jackson – who has been living out of the country for 18 months now – marrying breezy reflection with some rather beautiful harmonies. Have a first listen to the track and check out Bouts’ bassist Jackson’s eighteen-track, self-explanatory Summer Songs playlist below.

  • Video Premiere: Naoise Roo – Almost Perfect

    May 26, 2017 - By 

    Having left a considerable dent with her A Cappella cover of Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ back in March, Dublin chanteuse Naoise Roo is back with ‘Almost Perfect’, the fourth single from her exceptional debut album, Lilith. Launched last night in Dublin, the song is a masterfully melancholic and brilliantly candid insight into the mind of the artist, who has teamed up with Cork-based visual artist and filmmaker Chris O’Neill for the release. O’Neill – whose stripped-back, lo-fi visuals elevates the single to a whole new soul-baring realm – said: “Lilith is, in my opinion, amongst the finest albums released by an Irish artist in recent…

  • Loah and Behold: Catching Up With Sallay Matu Garnett

    May 25, 2017 - By 

    Sallay Matu Garnett has been steadily honing her musical style as Loah, over the last five years. During this time she has collaborated extensively with some of Ireland’s prominent musical figures such as Hozier, Glen Hansard and Bantum. Quickly, critics and audiences became increasingly interested in the music she was writing and releasing as a solo artist. Garnett’s music is informed and inspired an eclectic mix of genres that she was exposed to growing up in both Sierre Leone and Ireland. Where there are traces of traditional West African harmonies you can also hear Western influences throughout her repertoire. Such…

  • Watch: BAILER – In For A Penny, In For A Pound

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    Cork metalcore maestros BAILER are back with a fierce new single in the form of ‘In For A Penny, In For A Pound’. Rounded off with one of the more curious Irish music videos we’ve seen in a while – an accompaniment the quartet aptly summed as featuring “skateboarding gorillas drinking Buckfast and Dutch Gold, and engaging in a high action chase with raging hicks in a Honda Civic” – it’s another pleasingly face-melting effort that is worth it for that pinch harmonic at 1.32 alone. You’ll never watch Planet of the Apes the same way again.

  • Premiere: Pinner – Head for the Bedlam

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    With the prospect of up to three new albums set for release before the end of the year, (presumed) Northern Irish punk-funk masked duo Pinner are back with a new video single, ‘Head For The Bedlam’. Released in advance of forthcoming radio single ‘Incendiary’ – which will be released ahead of Return of the Pin Vol.2: Bloody Murder Picture on June 1 – this new effort is a typically left-of-centre blast of wilfully DIY garage from the pair, whose penchant for and ease at genre-hopping should fully reveal itself on forthcoming full-length releases throughout 2017. In the meantime, have a first peek…

  • Premiere: Slouch – It’s Not a Man Abandons Post

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    Never ones to sit on an idea for too long, pragmatic, scuzzy South Dubliners Slouch have followed up previous double A-side their whiteboyfilingcabinetfaxmachinestapler release from March with another, titled It’s Not a Man Abandons Post. A lethargically-paced brace that reaffirms what we learned from its predecessor – that you’d never get a hard day’s work out of the lads – It’s Not a Man… sees Slouch really lean into their name on this one, conjuring more slack indie rock by way of Weezer and the Seattle sound this time around, the Loctite rhythm section proving more than adequate foil for Conor Wilson’s Xanax’d-out vocal. The release is the…

  • Stream: Gadget and the Cloud – Continue

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    Cork producer Kelly Doherty AKA Gadget and the Cloud has returned with her strongest track to date in the form of ‘Continue’. A skilfully layered, emotively dense effort, the intent that underpins the single – which sounds like ‘Ful Stop’ by Radiohead re-imagined with euphoria and release firmly in mind – proves virulent from start to finish. This is a deceptively ambitious slice of downtempo, trip-hop inflected electronica that hits home and then some. Keep an eye out for Doherty’s forthcoming mini-album, Deceased Estate, which is set to drop at some point this summer.

  • Album Stream: FIXITY – FIXITY 3

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    Over the last couple of years Cork’s FIXITY have established themselves to be one of the country’s consistently intriguing sonic propositions. Composed and steered by Cork multi-instrumentalist Dan Walsh, the project’s explored in collective improvisation with other individuals three different releases, most recently December’s The Things In The Room. Tied together with masterfully loose conviction, new mini-album FIXITY 3 is is solo-produced album is a sprawling seven-track descent into free-form ambient textures, free jazz tangents and psychedelic colour. Performed and produced by Walsh, it’s a release that, in conjuring the more cosmically-inclined reverberations of Albert Ayler, Jessamine, Tortoise, Klaus Schulze and the Residents, offers…

  • Stream a new Twin Peaks-themed cover EP from Our Krypton Son

    May 22, 2017 - By 

    Unless you’ve been living under a very sizeable rock recently, you’ll know David Lynch and Mark Frost’s seminal serial drama Twin Peaks returned for its long-awaited third season last night. Marking the occasion in exquisite fashion, Derry singer-songwriter – and one of our featured 17 for 17 acts – Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son has unveiled a four-track, Twin Peaks-themed cover EP, Music From Blackfoot River. As well as Angelo Badalamenti/Julee Cruise gems ‘Falling’ and ‘Nightingale’ – both of which feature in the original Twin Peaks – the wonderfully lo-fi release features takes on ‘In Dreams’ and the the eponymous track…