• Monday Mixtape: Dani Larkin

    May 3, 2021 - By 

    Hailing from the Armagh-Monaghan border, folk singer-songwriter Dani Larkin just released single ‘The Red (Maca’s Return)‘. Taken from her debut album, Notes For A Maiden Warrior – out June 18th – she guides us through eight songs that carry weight upon her as a songwriter and person, from the formative to the just-discovered. The Chicks – Travellin’ Soldier This was one of the first songs I used to sing. One of my uncles brought the ‘Home’ album back from the U.S. and another uncle of mine learned the guitar parts and I would sing it. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I realised…

  • Monday Mixtape: Whozyerman?

    April 26, 2021 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his stellar new single ‘All The Time To Kill’ on May 14, Waterford artist and former O Emperor frontman Paul Savage aka Whozyerman? selects, as he puts it, a random selection of tunes that I’ve brain labeled as “class”. Tindersticks – The Organist Entertains I discovered this piece watching ‘Eastbound and down’ – a series I would also highly recommend. I wasn’t too familiar with Tindersticks before this but it was a great introduction to their vast body of work, which I’m still only scratching the surface of. The tune itself is a beautifully brooding yet gentle…

  • Monday Mixtape: Cryan

    April 19, 2021 - By 

    Belfast sad country duo Ciara Nic An Rí and Ryan Fitzsimmons AKA Cryan select and wax lyrical about some of their favourite tracks, including Patsy Cline, The Flying Burrito Brothers and more. Ryan The Good Gollies – Rosemary You can find it on Mashed Potato Records Volume 1 which was recorded in a makeshift, analogue-based recording studio set up by the Mississippi River in a structure that was more a shack than a house, but unmistakably a home. Both volumes of it remain a huge inspiration, but the Sapphic undertones of this track make it stand out above the other…

  • Monday Mixtape: Niall Jackson

    February 22, 2021 - By 

    London-based Dublin musician and broadcaster Niall Jackson aka Swimmers Jackson selects some of the songs featured on his excellent new radio show/podcast Pears For Lunch. I’m doing a new radio show/podcast on Islington Radio talking to Irish Musicians for an hour. A deep dive, breaking down songs, talking about influences and approach and getting some funny tour stories. The first seven have already been recorded with three episodes out so far. It’s called ‘Pears For Lunch’ and goes out on Mixcloud every Thursday on @IslingtonRadio so far here I’m delighted to give you an exclusive on songs looked at so…

  • Monday Mixtape: Loner Deluxe

    February 8, 2021 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his third album next month, Galway’s Loner Deluxe aka Keith Wallace (also founder of independent label Rusted Rail) guides us through his all-time favourite songs from Nico, Can, Mercury Rev, Silver Jews, Neu! and more Loner Deluxe’s Field Recordings is released on March 5th Mercury Rev – Frittering   I’ve loved this song for so long that when I heard Cian Ó Cíobháin play it recently on air on his An Taobh Tuathail radio show on RnaG I nearly levitated off the couch. This song and its parent album turn 30 this year and I’ve…

  • Monday Mixtape: Maija Sofia

    January 25, 2021 - By 

    Galway singer-songwriter Maija Sofia talks us through some of her all-time favourite songs, featuring Kate Bush, Planxty, Katie Kim, Joni Mitchell and more. Katie Kim – Pause I keep coming back to Katie Kim’s 2012 album Cover & Flood since watching her collaboration with Radie Peat. It’s such a special record to me, I came to it as a teenager and deeply fell in love with its strange, ghostly world of genuinely amazing songwriting and murky, deep sea drones and reverbs. I’m such a Katie Kim fan it’s almost embarrassing, and this song literally makes me cry, I keep going…

  • Monday Mixtape: Fears

    January 18, 2021 - By 

    Musician, producer and TULLE Collective founder Constance Keane aka Fears gives us a run-down of some of her favourite tracks right now, from Mitski and Francois Hardy, to Laura Groves and Hannah Peel. Laura Groves – Foolish Game This is off A Private Road, which came out in December. The entire EP is stun, but this video transports me to a world I wanna be in. Laura is an incredible songwriter and I’m really excited seeing her release self-produced music now too. Hannah Peel – Emergence in Nature From her upcoming album Fir Wave. This song only came out but I…

  • Monday Mixtape: Tandem Felix

    November 23, 2020 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his stellar new single ‘The Assassination’ on Friday, David Tapley AKA Tandem Felix handpicks some of his all-time favourite tracks, from Abba and Aphex Twin, to George Michael and Richard Dawson. Aphex Twin – ‘korg funk 5’ This is one of the pieces that Richard D. James made as a demonstration of the Korg Monologue synthesiser. As one of the top YouTube comments says: “A product demo has no business sounding this good.” At the start of lockdown, I was drinking six cups of coffee a day. This song was one that perfectly matched my…

  • Monday Mixtape: Slomatics

    November 2, 2020 - By 

    Belfast’s primary exponents of titanically heavy sludge, Slomatics, give us a rundown of some of their all-time essential tracks, from krautrock through to horror OSTs. Hawkwind – The Watcher Live Hawkwind albums can be a real mixed bag, and even for fans with as low a quality threshold as me they can be fairly disappointing. I’d avoided The ‘99 Party Live for years as I assumed it was recorded in 1999, a bit of a low point for the band, but this was actually recorded during Lemmy’s last tour with the band in ‘74 when the concept of 1999 was still very futuristic, and…

  • Monday Mixtape: Ben Harris (The Dreads)

    October 26, 2020 - By 

    Frontman of Belfast’s premier garage-psych proposition The Dreads, and would-be character in an M.R. James story, Ben Harris takes us through some of his Samhain favourites. Timberjack – Come To The Sabbat Sabbats were pretty much an invention by judges and inquisitors during the 14th and 15th centuries that became mythologized before people then started actually practicing their own sabbats themselves. I find this and cans are a great opener to any sabbat. The Electric Prunes – Shadows One of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar was an Electric Prunes song. It wasn’t this one. Grand Theft…