• Watch: Gumshoe – Yom Kippur

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    At the end of September, Wicklow based producers Gumshoe revealed themselves, emerging from the undergrowth with the smooth down-tempo cut ‘ducats’. Now the duo of Shannakie and Yam Faddah take a step further into world with the mesmerizing ‘Yom Kippur’, another gently glitching instrumental that blossoms to life with a resonant vocal sample, delicate keys and sprinklings of clicks and claps to push it along. It’s the sort of track that unexpectedly stuns you while effortlessly drifting past, a beautifully simple slice of organic electronica that will appeal to fans of ambient hip-hop producer Shlohmo and the quieter parts of Flying Lotus‘ catalogue. The track is accompanied…

  • Ilenkus – Hunger

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    Galway’s Ilenkus returned this month with their first release since 2014’s EP The Crossing. Hunger sees the quintet moving from the sludgy Neurosis-leaning sound of their previous work into a considerably more frenetic, uninhibited direction. This has done them plenty of favours, the tracks on this 15 minute offering being a step up both in terms of technicality but also in its immediate appeal. While it is by no means a re-invention of the wheel, it is a triumphant chunk of energy that deserves to stand front-and-centre within its realm. Written as a single piece, Hunger‘s four sections flow into one another with hurricane ferocity. From…

  • Stream: Kieran O’Brien – Won’t You

    October 12, 2016 - By 

    Rediscovery is a central concept when listening to the music of Kieran O’Brien. The songwriter spent four years after finishing university living in Dublin and Athlone but found himself drawn back to life closer to ocean in his home county of Galway, thus re-emersing himself in the place that had inspired his musical awakening. Reconnecting with home and the associated memories and emotions both positive and negative therein became a fuel for O’Brien to re-awaken the songwriter within him. This “un-freezing” as he describes it came to be defined by his life by the ocean and the memories of youth that…

  • Album Stream: Zinc – Zinc

    October 6, 2016 - By 

    Galway based post-rock trio Zinc have spent the first two years of their existence patiently honing a sound that blends their respective musical backgrounds together into a neat instrumental package. Their self-titled debut, mixed by Solar Bears’ and Leo Drezden‘s Rian Trench, is a fitting testament to that careful moulding together of styles, with the sporadic jazz influences sitting comfortably among the trip-hop, electronic and punk elements throughout its seven cuts. Originating as a purely instrumental act, the group, comprised of Simon Kenny (drums), Aengus Hackett (guitar) and Andrew Madec (bass), began expanding on melodic and rhythmic motifs to create something definitive while maintaining a free-form…

  • Oh Boland – Spilt Milk

    September 29, 2016 - By 

    Hailing from Tuam, Garage Rock trio Oh Boland are in the middle of celebrating the release of their long awaited and triumphant debut LP Spilt Milk, touring and performing throughout a number of venues on the East Coast of the US. It’s been a busy time for the Galway lads of late, and the attention they’re no enjoying has been well earned. Oh Boland have already released a number of EP’s since their formation in 2012 and as was the case with these prior releases, Spilt Milk, released this Friday on San Diego label Volar Records, is driven by the same blunt spurges of sludgy and raw, pop punk…

  • windings – Be Honest and Fear Not

    September 30, 2016 - By 

    There could be no more apt a title for the fourth full length LP from one of Ireland’s oft unsung but widely respected acts, Windings. Be Honest and Fear Not arrives after a four year spell of silence from the Limerick outfit and shows us a band, fronted by former Giveamanakick vocalist and guitarist Steve Ryan, who have absolutely nothing to camouflage and no affectation to assume. While this record might not match its 2012 predecessor I Am Not the Crow in terms of ambition or cohesion, it makes up for that in unabashed heart and candid songwriting. Lyrically, Ryan has discussed how the album plays…

  • WIFE – Standard Nature

    September 21, 2016 - By 

    Combing ferocity with beauty is something that has always played a central role in the music of James Kelly. In his other musical life the Cork artist makes up part of currently-in-limbo Atmospheric Black Metal outfit, Altar of Plagues, a group whose knack for vicious energy is made all the more gripping by the constant undercurrent of anguished melody, in particular on their 2013 album Teethed Glory and Injury.  Under his electronic solo moniker, WIFE, Kelly has, over the course of two previous releases, always tended to err more on the atmospheric end of that spectrum. His last LP, 2014’s…

  • R51 – No Chill

    September 16, 2016 - By 

    That steamrolling wall of sound which smashes through the mix and opens R51’s No Chill EP is a pretty undeniable statement of intent: the Belfast five-piece is bringing their already exceptionally high game to a new tier. Expanding on the palette set out on last year’s  the group delve deeper into shoegaze territory, as the emphasis on this outing is focused on the swirls of textured guitars and soaring vocals. It’s noisy and chaotic, yet intricate and finely honed. ‘Elephant’, the EP’s first song, is a clear testament to this as the seismic opening contrasts with Melyssa Shannon’s delicate, yet…

  • The Smoke Clears – The Smoke Clears

    September 15, 2016 - By 

    It’s a shame this album didn’t come out sooner. The Smoke Clears, the self-titled album under the alias of Galway resident and Berghain/Panorama Bar regular John Daly, is laden with the same feeling encouraged by Netflix hit Stranger Things. In the wake of its success, a flurry of mixes, covers and think-pieces have explored the show’s music, with the soundtrack already being released on vinyl, and Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of S U R V I V E set to perform the score at Unsound in Poland next month. With the speed of passing interest, it seems too late to…

  • Stream: Lighght – What U Need

    September 14, 2016 - By 

    Over the past year or so, mysterious Cork based producer Lighght has been steadily building a collection of dark, ambient, sometimes industrial electronica, with each new composition feeling like a movement in a much more driven direction. Beginnings with tracks like ‘Oppen’ and ‘Croesus Pieces’ were sparse but were enticing in their intent, droning backdrops providing stable bases for muffled melodies. Three months ago saw the unveiling of ‘Drown’, a track which saw the artist veering into more dub, garage influenced territory while still hanging onto the ambient drones. Now Lighght reveals ‘What U Need’, yet another step forward in the artists’ technical…