• EP Premiere: Licehead – Friends

    May 19, 2020 - By 

    Paul O’Connor – of That Snaake notoriety – has shared with us his latest release under the Licehead banner, which follows up on last year’s Music For Normal People album, and precedes upcoming summer LP Perfect Death Forever, which is set in a modern Ireland and based around a reincarnated lung’s attempts to kill its host. An aural equivalent to peeling-paint walls-closing-in claustrophobic hysteria, Friends at its extremes recalls the torpid squalor of Fat White Family or The Fall in dada-techno mode. Partly written over the last two months, the EP sees O’Connor turns the pen upon himself and loved ones, and societally-ingrained truths; title track ‘fRENDS’ is itself a reworking of ‘I’ll Be There For You’,…

  • Stream: DIY LK – Bed Covers Vol. 1

    April 14, 2020 - By 

    A vital presence in the country’s ever-evolving independent scene, DIY LK tirelessly fly the flag for homespun Limerick sounds, all while going beyond the call of duty to accommodate artists and micro-scenes from beyond. It’s a rare breed of collaborative initiative that hasn’t faltered in the time of pandemic. The collective have just released Bed Covers Vol. 1, a new charity covers compilation in which seven Limerick bands (Anna’s Anchor, Bleeding Heart Pigeons, Casavettes, Cruiser, Hey Rusty, His Father’s Voice and Scenes) cover each other’s material in aid of Doras Luimní, a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that support the rights of…

  • Bleeding Heart Pigeons Announce New Album ‘Stir’

    March 27, 2020 - By 

    Four years on from the release of their acclaimed debut album Is, experimental pop trio Bleeding Heart Pigeons have announce its long-awaited follow-up, Stir, accompanied by lead single, the prescient ‘Real Connection’. Written and recorded in their converted farm-shed in rural West Limerick, the band have been together for twelve years, having signed to Virgin Records as teenagers in 2013 and since moving on to their own new imprint Hlym Records. Stir is set for release on May 22. In contrast to the “album-oriented” process of Is, the band described their approach in Stir as being more song-focused – “each song is its own little world”. Infectious and…

  • Stream: DJ Limewire x Post Punk Podge – Stuck In The System

    February 7, 2020 - By 

    Photo by Eilis Walsh Talismanic Limerick rapper Post Punk Podge has a knack for cutting through to Ireland’s most uncomfortable truths, and one day ahead of the next Irish general election, the Direct Provision system – swept under the carpet by most leading politicians – is in his scope. ‘Stuck In The System’ is a collaboration with DJ Limewire – aka Cathal of Bleeding Heart Pigeons – whose beats accompany Podge with apt clautrophobia and dissonance. As many of you know, Direct Provision is essentially this generation’s Magdalene Laundries. A system in place for over two decades, asylum seekers become institutionalised, having been given just…

  • Video Premiere: Paddy Mulcahy – Sunset Connoisseur

    December 15, 2019 - By 

    Limerick ambient and experimental electronic producer Paddy Mulcahy has shared a video for ‘Sunset Connoisseur’. Lifted from his new album, ‘How To Disappear’, the track is a delicate work of muffled piano motifs, dusty percussion and warm atmospherics. The nostalgic visual pairing comes coutresy of Dublin based director Dave Fox. “The song instantly struck a nostalgic chord with me,” says Fox of the video. “There’s a texture within Paddy’s music that has grit and grain and I thought that shooting on film would be the perfect way to compliment that sound. I recently inherited a super 8 camera that had…

  • Premiere: Casavettes – Imposter Syndrome

    December 4, 2019 - By 

    DIY LK‘s resident emos-in-chief Casavettes round out a year that’s seen them tour the length of the land on the back of their debut album, Senselessness. One of the most prolific acts in the most prolific music city on the island, they’re back with new single ‘Imposter Syndrome’ – a 2nd wave homage which firmly posits them as potentially the finest of their ilk in Ireland. Like Senselessness, the single was engineered and produced by Mícheál Keating of Bleeding Heart Pigeons. Artwork comes from Eilis Mahon (Girlfriend/icebear). Frontman Diarmuid Ó Sé told us more about how the track came together: “I started writing it directly after the album…

  • Split EP Premiere: Mob Wife / Cruiser

    November 27, 2019 - By 

    It’s easy for bands to serve up those oft. espoused platitudes about the value of “co-operation in the music scene”, but to be pro-active in that is another matter entirely. Gladly, we’re seeing that attitude start to spread, with the latest in the trend being two of the most exciting DIY, guitar-driven bands on the island coming together for a split EP release. Mob Wife/Cruiser features, unsurprisingly, two tracks each from Belfast trio Mob Wife and Limerick quartet Cruiser, conceived of in early 2019. Both with their own singular imprint, Mob Wife and Cruiser share the emotionally-charged influence of 90s post-hardcore and fist-clenched modern indie rock & punk sensibility, as well…

  • Stream: His Father’s Voice – In The Shade

    October 14, 2019 - By 

    Staking their claim as one of the brightest prospects in Irish post-punk & shoegaze with their Context & Perspective EP earlier this year, Limerick’s His Father’s Voice are back with a new single. Written around the same time as their debut EP, the quartet’s A-side goes further down the path trodden down fellow ‘gaze revivalists like DIIV & Cheatahs, without letting the wall of sound envelope what it is – a great pop song that plays on the idea of “how resentment finds room to feed and grow through hiding behind the appearance of a bright and happy exterior”. Meanwhile, B-side ‘Close’ is the kind of miasmic sea of…

  • Preview: Féile na Gréine 2019

    August 12, 2019 - By 

    It’s no longer up for debate: right now, the network of promoters, venues and artists that make up Ireland’s extraordinary DIY music scene (singular) is the strongest and most homogeneous that it’s ever been. From Dundalk, Cork, and Belfast to Letterkenny, Dublin, Derry and beyond, incalculable good people are putting on world-beating shows and festivals, featuring acts of every ilk and every conceivable corner of the island. No area or sound is being overlooked. No band is stranded in the arse-end of nowhere after a show. Blind, sweeping reverence for Dublin as some sort of untouchable bastion of Irish music…

  • Stream: Sorbet – Born Purple feat. Mícheál Keating

    August 2, 2019 - By 

    One of Irish music’s bona fide polymaths, Chris Ryan – Robocobra Quartet leader and Hot Cops, Just Mustard & Hunkpapa producer – has unveiled his new collaborative project. Aptly titled Sorbet, it offers a fresh palette to a string of musicians upon which they can “write tangentially from their usual process to avoid creeping burnout.” As masterfully understated as you’d hope from its creators, Sorbet’s first iteration is a subtly brooding piece which unfurls with repeat listens. Ryan’s distorted, at-times claustrophobic beats, muted piano, lay  by an incredible falsetto-heavy vocal performance from Mícheál Keating, frontman of Limerick experimental alternative trio Bleeding Heart Pigeons. Mícheál said of his lyrical approach: “The imagery in the verse comes…