• 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…

  • Monday Mixtape: Son Zept

    October 19, 2020 - By 

    Recently championed and playlisted by the likes of by ourselves, The Quietus, DJ Mag and leftfield DJ par excellence Avalon Emerson, “Northern Ireland’s resident electronic compositional polymath” Liam McCartan, AKA Son Zept has just released his second mini-album of 2020, B. Today, he gives us an uncharacteristically abridged mixtape of some current favourite tracks. I tried to keep this as just a stream of thought and not cram in stuff that I’d end rambling about daft things like cheeky hauntological anti-memory sound (*ahem*). Excluded tunes from Aphex Twin + Aphex covers, Mal Waldron, Oneohtrix Point Never, Eprom, Lyra Pramuk, Pinch & Mumdance, Holly Herndon, Chassol,…

  • Monday Mixtape: Arborist

    September 28, 2020 - By 

    As a counter to my aimless life as a singer-songwriter, my wife works in bioengineering, researching the cause of pelvic floor muscle injuries during childbirth, contributing to the mitigation of the life-impacting disorders that result. In what is ultimately a human rights issue, the physical price paid by women, stemming from discrimination to lack of basic support in such a fundamental and necessary area, is symptomatic of a wider issue and the music industry is not immune. As grim as these times are for the arts, we probably will have an opportunity to build things from the ground up again, with…

  • Monday Mixtape: John Francis Flynn

    July 27, 2020 - By 

    In the latest instalment of Monday Mixtape, experimental Dublin folk singer John Francis Flynn – who you may have caught on the wonderful inaugural episode of Live From Guerrilla Studios – takes us through some of his favourite recent musical finds, across a wealth of traditional and avant-garde sounds. It’s the year 2020. I’m on a train wearing a mask. Time has been moving very fast recently, and very very slowly. I’m going to Mayo to be alone. I will climb a mountain, swim in the sea and work on some music. When I come back to Dublin I will finish recording my first album…

  • Monday Mixtape: CATALAN!

    July 6, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of Monday Mixtape, Belfast-based musician Ewen Friers aka CATALAN! waxes lyrical about some of his all-time favourite songs, from WHY? and DakhaBrakha, to Orlando Weeks and Orchéstre Baka Gbiné. Los Cotopla Boyz – Me Malviaje Con Las Ganlletas Get your week started right – Los Cotopla Boyz blowing away the cobwebs, this was their debut track. I like how this is danceable and direct from the get-go but ends with that sort of proggy introspective outro, somehow it works. Orchéstre Baka Gbiné – Kopola Staying on the international voyage that is this playlist here’s a crucial track…

  • Monday Mixtape: CMAT

    May 18, 2020 - By 

    From Bombay Bicycle Club and Dolly Parton to Glen Campbell and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Meath pop sensation Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson aka CMAT waxes lyrical about some of her all-time favourite songs. __ Bombay Bicycle Club – Lights Out, Words Gone I could write a book about any song on this album. My first foray into the music industry was being a highly successful Bombay Bicycle Club fangirl, and it has served me quite well in life. I ran a blog about the guitarist, Jamie, where me and my friends wrote fanfiction and photoshopped his head onto members of…