• This Month In Irish Music: March

    April 1, 2019 - By 

    In the latest of a new regular series, Colin Gannon rounds up the very best Irish tracks released of the month just gone, featuring The Claque, Uwmammi, Invader Slim, James Joys, Cassavetes, Jafaris and more. The Claque — Hush Hush, the transfixing single from The Claque — the newly reinvented trio comprising of Alan Duggan (Girl Band), Kate Brady and Paddy Ormond — was this month’s most wiry, propulsing listen. Miasmic textures, beautiful, veiled melodies and bristling, febrile noise collide, ensuring the group avoid immediate categorisation. The eardrum-splitting tautness of Girl Band does come to mind, but the group are…

  • Listen to a New Four-Track Split From Out on a Limb and Strange Brew Records

    March 20, 2019 - By 

    Some collaborative releases were just destined to be. As two of the country’s finest indie imprints, Limerick’s Out on a Limb and Galway’s Strange Brew have spent many a long year championing the worthiest of homegrown sounds. Now, the labels have teamed up for Out On a Strange Brew, a new quadruple a-side collaborative release featuring two artists that we’ve loved from the start: Limerick quartet PowPig and Kerry experimental folk artist Ronan Kealy AKA Junior Brother. Kicking off with two new tracks from the former – the equally assured ‘Mayday’ and ‘Pretty Woman’ – the release culminates on two sublime efforts from the…

  • Video Premiere: Junior Brother – The Back of Her

    December 7, 2018 - By 

    Back in January, we featured Kerry experimental folk artist Ronan Kealy AKA Junior Brother as one of our ones to watch in 2018. From making his mark at Electric Picnic, Metropolis, Other Voices and elsewhere, to being lined up for a spin on Cillian Murphy’s BBC 6Music show on December 23, he has made good on the promise and then some Sealing the deal on a very busy year – one that was spun into motion via last year’s ‘Hungover at Mass‘ – is the serene and singular ‘The Back of Her’. It’s a wistful and unravelling heart-stung paean that distils the essence of Kealy’s craft to…

  • 18 for ’18: Junior Brother

    January 10, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature of showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up is Junior Brother. Photo by Sarah Ryan Having played Whelan’s Ones to Watch festival the last two years running and given his recent move to Dublin, Ronan Kealy is set to make 2018 his year. The Kerry native, who goes by the stage name Junior Brother, followed up his debut EP Sleeping at the Bottom of the Sea with Fuck…