• Deep Down South: Mag Launch, Busy Town, Streaming Sounds

    March 2, 2015 - By 

    After last week’s column promising more music and such didn’t materialise, this week’s is a wee bit of a catch-up. However – plug, plug, plug! – we’ll kick off by putting in a shout for our Cork launch on Saturday at the Crane Lane for the mag. Issue 5 of the mag (the cover pictured) features a full-length piece on the Altered Hours, from their beginnings and debut release ‘Downstream’, to their upcoming album and time in Berlin. We’ll also have an Inbound on Leeside multi-piece groove ensemble Shookrah, among so, so much more, and it’ll be available exclusively at…

  • Stream: Meltybrains? – Donegal

    February 6, 2015 - By 

    Few Irish bands command seemingly effortless originality as convincingly as Meltybrains? The lead single from their debut vinyl release ‘Donegal/IV’, ‘Donegal’ is a spirited, expansive ode to escapism, reverb-laced lingering vocal lines and shuffling rhythms marrying in a mighty mesh of fist-clenched, impassioned abandon. ‘Donegal/IV’ is released on February 16. Pre-order it from Rough Trade right here.

  • Track Record: Meltybrains?

    December 10, 2014 - By 

    In the latest installment of Track Record, the utterly inimitable Meltybrains? take us on a boundlessly intriguing journey into their minds/record collections. Photos by Tara Thomas. Micheál Snarky Puppy – Tell Your Friends This was the first Snarky Puppy album I was introduced to. A great friend of mine, the infamous ‘Jimmy from Boston’, showed them to me. ‘Skate U’ was the first track I ever heard, and I instantly became enthralled. I thought it was the best music I had ever heard, and I still do. I took it as a personal mission to show everyone I met Snarky Puppy. I genuinely think they are…

  • Electric Picnic 2014 @ Stradbally Estate, Co. Laois

    September 2, 2014 - By 

    With a sickeningly diverse lineup of local and international acts, both old and new, spanning more or less every genre under the glistening sun, Electric Picnic 2014 is the hottest ticket of the Irish summer, and upon exploration of the festival site (it would be unjust to ignore Electric Picnic’s attention to detail) there’s the essential Body & Soul zone, functioning as the hippie commune area of the site – the music and arts festival is, after all, the bedrock of the hippie dream – and the Trailer Park, which offers corn dogs, some cover bands and an assortment of…

  • Watch: Meltybrains? – Green, Yellow & Purple

    January 7, 2014 - By 

    Dublin weirdo/electro-pop five-piece Meltybrains? have long been a band that have piqued our interest. Becoming less a mere curiousity, that interest has blossomed into full-blown excitement with the release of the band’s latest single, the ten-minute ‘Green, Yellow &Purple’. Created by Louise Gaffney (of Come On Live Long, no less), the video for the single is a decidedly tripped-out accompaniment that nicely weaves around the track – a skittered, blissed-out mini-odyssey that forges the eccentric with the stellar in thoroughly confident fashion, unravelling to become something of a prog/electro masterstroke. Immerse yourself in the video below.