• Irish Tracks of the Week – 21st June

    June 21, 2024 - By 

    We’ve been a bit blessed with some world-beating Irish music this week. Here’s essential new releases by exmagician (did someone say one of the albums of the year?), Lankum, Stray Planets, The Mary Wallopers, Cold Soviets, Beauty Sleep and more exmagician – Sit Tight Sit Tight by exmagician Stray Planets – Messed Up Cold Soviets – Memories of Year Zero Memories of Year Zero by Cold Soviets Lankum – Live in Dublin The Mary Wallopers – Home Boys Home Fixity – WHY WAIT WHY WAIT by Fixity Beauty Sleep – Big Sky Hazey Haze & mankyy – SHY BOII GETS…

  • The Low-End Theory: An Interview John ‘Spud’ Murphy

    January 4, 2024 - By 

    Stevie Lennox chats with Spud Murphy about his crucial role in sculpting the soundworlds of Lankum, Black MIDI, ØXN and more Photos by Loreana Rushe In an inauspicious arch underneath the Dart line in North Dublin you’ll find John ‘Spud’ Murphy, working away in his longtime hub of Guerrilla Studios. “So it still is like a cave, which has pros and cons,” he says. “You’re in a cave. And there’s no external light, but you don’t know what time of the day it is. So you just keep working and you’re not looking outside going, oh, it’s beautiful outside. You…

  • Gig for Gaza Set For Vicar Street

    November 1, 2023 - By 

    A massive fundraising gig to raise funds for medical aid in Gaza has been announced. Taking over Vicar Street in Dublin on 28th November, Gig for Gaza will bring together some of the island’s very best artists – Lankum, The Mary Wallopers, Damien Dempsey, Lisa O’Neill, Pauline Scanlon, Síle Denvir, Niamh Dunne & Friends – to raise vital funds for Medical Aid for Palestinians Doubling up as the first fundraiser gig to be organised by a new, all-island initiative Irish Artists for Palestine, tickets go on sale at 10am this Friday, November 3rd November. Learn more about Irish Artists for…

  • Lankum Nominated for Mercury Prize

    July 27, 2023 - By 

    In surely one of the most warranted determinations in the history of annual album prizes, Lankum have been nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize. Alongside the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Jockstrap, Shygirl and Young Fathers, the Dublin quartet will vie for the prestigious annual album award for their fourth studio album, False Lankum. Released via Rough Trade back in March, the album doubly underscored the band’s forward-pushing, genre-trouncing experimental folk. The winner of this year’s Mercury Prize will be announced at London’s Hammersmith Apollo on 7th September. Check out the full shortlist below. Revisit Andrew Lambert’s verdict on False Lankum here and check…

  • Lankum – False Lankum

    March 29, 2023 - By 

    With the title of their fourth record, Lankum evoke the folk ballad of Irish traveller John O Reilly for which they named themselves. As such, False Lankum is a sprawling epic that pays studious tribute to the quartet’s past while progressing into bold new territory largely hinted at until now.  Recorded at the aptly-named Hellfire Studio in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains, these twelve tracks possess an eerie otherworldliness that reveals itself from the off, as ‘Go Dig My Grave’ finds Lankum digging deeper into terrifying walls of ambient noise and experimentalism which anchor this collection throughout. In turn,…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – 24th March

    March 24, 2023 - By 

    Taking in every corner of the island, here’s the very best tracks of the week from Lankum, Chalk, Niall McDowell, The Fae, Krea, The Wood Burning Savages and many more Lankum – False Lankum False Lankum by Lankum Phil Kieran – The Strand Cinema The Strand Cinema by Phil Kieran Chalk – Asking Niall McDowell – I Have Given Up The Wood Burning Savages – Climb The Ladder The Fae – Chloe Gnarkats – Homesick Krea – Don’t Tell Me Seba Safe – On My Way Drew Makes Noise – Lemonade Derek Ellard & The Future Business Model – Electricity…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – March 3rd

    March 3, 2023 - By 

    It’s Bandcamp Friday once again, and it’s been yet another stacked week for Irish releases. Dig into the best of them featuring Lankum, Aoife Nessa Frances, Gareth Quinn Redmond, Conor Mason, Hands Up Who Wants To Die and more Lankum – The New York Trader False Lankum by Lankum Aoife Nessa Frances – Automatic Love Automatic Love by Aoife Nessa Frances Gareth Quinn Redmond – Ar Ais Aris Ar Ais Arís by Gareth Quinn Redmond Hands Up Who Wants To Die – Nil All HANDS UP WHO WANTS TO DIE – Nil all by FONORADAR brawni – Amber Brawni –…