• Watch: Candice Gordon – Smoke in the Air

    With vocals evoking the likes of Anna Calvi and Grace Slick to Nico and PJ Harvey, Berlin-based Dublin artist Candice Gordon fuses garage, psych and rock with classical and jazz influences in an irresistible brume of quasi-Gothic space. Set for release via Proper Octopus Records on Friday, November 13, her new single ‘Smoke In The Air’ personifies that elemental majesty in a haze of repetitive, mantric glory. Creative by Gordon with cameras courtesy of No Name Media & Valquire Veljkovic, watch the video for the single below.  

  • EP Premiere: Maija Sofia – The Sugar Sea

    Having moved to London last year, Maija Sofia wrote and recorded The Sugar Sea during a solitary few months that came as a result of independently relocating to alien city. Dealing with the universal traits of loneliness and anxiety – but lightened by juxtaposition with Sofia’s empirical, fairytale mannerisms – the tracks on the Galway’s musician’s debut solo EP makes for a bewitching, almost voyeuristic listen. Three of the songs (‘The Girl Who Pulled the Sun Down’, ‘Hail Mary’, ‘I Will Not Be Worth It’) were recorded in Mowlem Street Studio, Bethnal Green by producer James Hare (Women in Love, Milk White White Teeth) and he…

  • Watch: Colm Mac Con Iomaire – Bláth (Flower)

    Just over a month until his homecoming Christmas show with Lisa O’Neill at Dublin’s Vicar Street on December 17,  Colm Mac Con Iomaire has unveiled a video of him performing the brilliant ‘Bláth (Flower)’ live at Rockwood Music Hall, New York City. Filmed and edited by Shane G. Mahon, it’s a wonderfully captured performance that sees guitar, strings and piano weave a bewitching backdrop upon which footage of NYC on mute is overlaid. Frames’ member Mac Con Iomaire will play the following upcoming shows. November 11: St Pancras Old Church, London December 9: Empire Music Hall, Belfast December 17: Vicar St, Dublin

  • Stream: Saint Sister – Castles

    “My mother is lonely/My father speaks only to himself  My sister’s in danger/Her lover’s a stranger.” Undoubtedly the jewel in their lulling folk-pop crown, there’s a real immediacy poise to the lyrics of Irish Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntyre AKA Saint Sister. With their debut EP, Madrid, set for release via Trout Records on Friday, November 13, their latest single ‘Castles’ confines that intimate, instantly relatable savoir faire to four minutes of gossamer-like song, relaying succinct, unspoken truths of – perhaps unmistakably Irish – family life. Recorded in a short, purportedly “intense” session at Noise studio, Co. Kerry by Alex Ryan of Hozier, Madrid…

  • Stream: exmagician – Kiss That Wealth Goodbye

    Set to make their debut appearance at Lavery’s, Belfast on Friday, November 13, exmagician is Danny Todd and James Smith of Cashier No.9. Despite the name change, their brand new debut single, ‘Kiss The Wealth Goodbye’, is familiar yet suitably triumphant territory that retains their symphonic psych-pop spell of yore. Dig a little deeper and the burning urgency that drives the track (and their forthcoming self-titled EP) forth reveals an outfit in no mood to relive past glories. Go here for the Lavery’s show Facebook event page and stream ‘Kiss That Wealth Goodbye’ below.

  • Watch: Alarmist – Petrichor

    Dropping on the same day of the release of their hugely anticipated debut album Popular Demain (full review coming tomorrow) Dublin instrumental rock wizards Alarmist have unveiled the video for triumphant, kaleidoscopic lead single ‘Petrichor’. With the album now available via Small Pond Recordings on 12″ vinyl, CD and digital download, the opening is comprised of studio footage shot and edited by Afghaniscan AKA Robert Scanlon, who along with Rian Trench of Solar Bears was one of the engineers on the album. Alarmist will launch Popular Demain in association with Ensemble Music this Friday (November 6) at Dublin’s Sugar Club,…

  • Watch: Morning Veils – Lady In Red

    Lending itself very nicely to their furtive and chimeric craft, Cork outfit Morning Veils keep a pretty low-key presence online. Comprised of members including Elaine Howley of The Altered Hours and Roslyn Steer, the band’s tagline on Twitter is “forgotten folk and other stories”, a little offering of insight that firmly nods in the direction of the band’s yearning new song ‘Lady In Red’. Conjuring the likes of early Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Pod-era Breeders and the more ruminating tracks on Queens of the Stone Age’s self-titled debut, the single – recorded by Dan Walsh – will feature on the band’s forthcoming debut album, Her Kind, which be…

  • The Annulments – Everything I Lost

    In an ideal world, the title of a record would tell you everything you need to know. Maybe not in the literal sense, as you’d wonder how many copies of Nickelback’s latest LP, 12 Generic Cobain Aping Songs, would sell. Everything I Lost, the debut album from Dublin folk group The Annulments is a great example of a name perfectly fitting an album. In three simple words, the phrase is able to evoke this incredibly personal sense of longing, sadness and pathos, yet is vague enough to apply in any context: loss of love, financial security or even a sense…

  • Watch: All Tvvins – Darkest Ocean

    Set to feature as one of the tracks on FIFA ’16 – a huge coup by anyone’s standards – ‘Darkest Ocean’ by Dublin duo All Tvvins is arguably their strongest single effort to date. Urgent and hooky in all the right places, the track’s release has been rounded off in style with yet another exquisite video courtesy of Feel Good Lost’s Brendan Canty & co. Speaking to us about the video, Canty said, “It’s was such a privilege to make a music video to one of my favourite songs of the year. ‘Darkest Ocean’ is one of the best indie songs I’ve heard in…

  • Stream: Joseph Panama – Saturn Howl

    Channelling the more masterfully protracted – and occasionally quite dark – ambient drone expanses of the likes of vanguards Harold Budd, Tim Hecker, Stars of the Lid and William Basinski, Saturn Howl by Overhead the Albatross bassist Joseph Panama comprises two varyingly enveloping, twenty-two minute soundscapes that induce several shades of cosmic levity, cavernous glory and barren madness. Stream or download it via Bandcamp below. Saturn Howl by Joseph Panama