• Stream: Fabric – Jungle

    April 7, 2015 - By 

    Of the increasing number of new bands to emerge in Derry over the last while, Fabric are easily one of the more curious propositions. Having formed in the summer of last year, Ruairi Coyle (drums) and Lorcan Hamilton (bass/vox) are, according to their Facebook bio, “striving to invent a new sound by exploring many different genres/artists and musical styles.” You might as well aim high, right? Accompanied with wonderfully bombastic b-side ‘Ascot Blondes’, the duo’s debut single, ‘Jungle’ is certainly hard to pin down. At a push, we’d be inclined to say it sounds a bit like Death From Above 1979 jamming Joy Division (or…

  • Watch: Imploded View – Subliminal Summer

    March 30, 2015 - By 

    Taken from his forthcoming album, Longford producer Jerome McCormick AKA Imploded View has released a wonderfully woozy slice of throwback electro-pop, ‘Subliminal Summer’. With his vocals taken centre-stage, it’s a pretty linear and cunningly straightforward effort, hinting at some promising stuff for the album.

  • Album premiere: Túcan – Towers

    March 31, 2015 - By 

    With its launch set for Dublin’s Button Factory on Saturday night, we’re pleased to present a first listen to Towers, an album that confirms the hugely impressive metamorphosis of Sligo’s Túcan. A masterclass in perfectly-honed, brilliantly realised instrumentalism, the album straddles the fine line between decidedly soundtrack-like Cinematic Orchestra-esque post-rock and trad-inflected mini-symphonies. Having been steadily developing and spearheading progression in their guitar-led sound over the last twelve months, the eight-piece have delivered a record brimming with integrity, imagination and daring, capturing the thrill of their scintillating live show in the process. Stream Towers below.

  • Stream: Girls Names – Zero Triptych

    March 26, 2015 - By 

    Having released a teaser a couple of weeks back, Girls Names have re-emerged with eleven-minute post-punk odyssey in three parts, ‘Zero Triptych’. Set for 12″ release via Tough Love, the track – bearing an expansive, evolving sound a million miles from the surf-pop of their 2011 debut album, Dead To Me – is inspired by the band’s discovery of the Group Zero art movement, a group of artists founded by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene. Speaking to the Fader, the Cathal Cully-fronted band said: “[This] is our ode to the masters of light and shade – Mack, Piene and Uecker aka…

  • Stream: Paddy Hanna – Austria

    March 25, 2015 - By 

    Just over a year on from released the exquisite Leafy Stiletto – one of our Irish albums of 2014 no less – Dublin’s Paddy Hanna has returned in something of a new guise with ‘Austria’, a jangle-pop mini-masterstroke evoking the likes of Morrissey, The Divine Comedy and Elvis Costello. There’s also a vague hint of Joe Dolan in there too but we’ll pretend we didn’t hear that. Or will we? Anyway, we’re very fond of ‘Austria’ and wouldn’t even remotely kick up a fuss if Hanna deciding to dander down this sonic path for an eon and an age. Paired with a b-side,…

  • Watch: All Tvvins – Thank You

    March 19, 2015 - By 

    Having received its premiere on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 programme last month, Dublin duo All Tvvins have unveiled the rather fabulous video for their triumphant debut single, ‘Thank You’. In January we summed up a live version of the track, released last year as “A charming and bewitching math-pop track released as a live video from the post-Adebisi supergroup. Whip-smart in the composition, and beautifully restrained in the delivery, it is a wonderful dichotomy of heart-warming melodies and existential uncertainty, sealed with searing, aching swell guitar.” The video for the single – a hyper-disco, ballerina-centric mini-masterpiece – was directed by Brendan…

  • Stream: Rusangano Family – Wasteman

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    Formerly known as God Knows + mynameisjOhn, month we had the pleasure of bearing witness to Limerick’s Rusangano Family live in a filming of the Parlour (in which were also guests) at Whelan’s, Dublin. Both on and off camera, the guys – one of the featured acts in our 15 for ’15 feature – delivered an electrifying brace of tracks including the equal parts excellent and ethical ‘Wasteman’. Now, ahead of their midnight performance at our second birthday party at Dublin’s Twister Pepper on Saturday, May 2, the trio have released a studio version of the track. Featuring guitar from Steve Ryan of Windings,…

  • Watch: Patrick Gardiner – I’m Your Creation

    March 18, 2015 - By 

    Cornwall-based, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Patrick Gardiner is a methodical songsmith that thrives on the intricacies of his craft. From the poise and refrain of his carefully-considered words to specific chord changes and structures, he has really made an impression on us, live, on more than one occasion. Three years on from his self-released debut EP, Save Myself, the Co. Down musician will release its five-track follow-up, Carcassonne, on April 1. On first listen, it’s a subtly eclectic mix of acoustic tale-telling, Gardiner’s earnest delivery on each track hovering confidently over full-band tracks underpinned with some instantly memorable melodic threads and pop nuances. Ahead…

  • Stream: Arborist – Twisted Arrow (feat. Kim Deal)

    March 16, 2015 - By 

    In one of the more curious, unlikely – and, let’s face, envy-inducing – collaborations headed by a Irish singer-songwriter in quite some time, Belfast-based folk songsmith Mark McCambridge AKA Arborist has unveiled his latest effort, featuring backing vocals from none other than Kim Deal. Speaking about the collaboration, McCambridge said: “The harmony part was always there, from the moment the song was written and recorded here in Belfast.  But it needed a unique voice.  Fancifully, we drew-up a shortlist of desirable candidates with Kim far and away top of the list.  So, we contacted her – as you do – and after a…

  • Watch: Meltybrains? – Donegal

    March 13, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of jetting off to SXSW next week – and our Belfast show with them and Blue Whale at QUBSU’s Bar Sub on Friday, April 10 – Dublin experimental band Meltybrains? have unveiled the video for the stupendous ‘Donegal’. When the track first reared its heard at the start of February we called it a “spirited, expansive ode to escapism – reverb-laced lingering vocal lines and shuffling rhythms marry in a mighty mesh of fist-clenched, impassioned abandon.” Donegal will be released as part of the band’s debut vinyl release, ‘Donegal/IV’, on February 16. Buy it here. Watch the video for ‘Donegal’…