Having unveiled his debut release – the eight-track Safe Haven – back in June, Belfast-based musicians James Bruce AKA OAKS has returned with ‘SG REX’. Clocking in over nine minutes, the track traverses all kinds of sonic territory, driven forward with a thoughtful restlessness, finally culminating in a wonderful, twisted throb. Stream the track via Bandcamp below. SG REX by Oaks
We’re pleased to premiere the latest video by hands down one of the most promising pop singer-songwriters in the country at the minute, Callum Stewart. Released via OLD FANG, ‘Gold’ is a stripped-back, piano-led distillation of the hotly-tipped songsmith’s craft. Where strings and percussion very nicely lend to the song’s allure – name its impassioned climax – Stewart’s vocals are, without a shadow of a doubt, the focal point here. Familiar without sounding commonplace, earnest without veering soppiness, it sets the young artist apart from many of his peers – and several of his contemporaries. Supported by Jamie Neish, Stewart places the latest OLD FANG…
One of our must-see acts at the Cork Music Trail next week, Eoin French AKA Talos has unveiled the video for his latest single, ‘Bloom’. Created by the ridiculously-talented Feel Good Lost, the video is quite an intense affair, centering on the attempted (physical and psychic/spiritual) release of its hyper-distressed female protagonist. The track is released with ‘Tethered Bones’ on 12″. Watch the video below.
Released via Ergodos on lovely orange vinyl on Friday coming, Dublin-based experimental multi-instrumentalist, composer and music producer Seán Mac Erlaine is streaming A Slender Song, an oft-hypnotic ten-track release comprised of entirely improvised live noise. Speaking of the recording and improvisational impetus behind the release, Mac Erlaine told us, “All these tracks were recorded in performance. And all the performances were entirely improvised, so I guess it’s an album of improvisations from gigs around Ireland over the last four years. I did spend a good bit of time editing, mixing and producing these into something which hopefully sounds like an album – I…
We were going to post this yesterday but seeing as we featured the band in question in our latest live session – which you can and most certainly should watch here – this evening seems a little more opportune. A rather ingenuous hybrid of spoken-world punk, jazz and hip-hop, Belfast four-piece Robocobra Quartet have just let loose into the world their latest Double A-side: ‘Knotweed/Witch Hunt’. The former – featuring probably second most brilliantly abrupt intro in jazz-centric history – demonstrates the band’s more bold leanings, melting shifting, shuddering rhythms, expertly atonal bass shapes and braying sax squeals with drummer/vocalist Chris…
When he’s not busy making music and playing shows as part of Dublin quartet Bouts, Colin Boylan is concocting his own wonderfully earworming brand of lo-fi indie rock as Sunburnt Jets. Having spent “18 months working on them here and there”, he has just released a very impressive double A-side release: ‘Stare and Pretend’/’Out of Luck’. With self-proclaimed nods to shoegaze and dream-pop, the tracks were recorded and mixed in Boylan’s Stoneybatter home-studio, with mastering by Stephen Quinn (Patrick Kelleher, Subplots). According to Boylan, “some of the posters on the studio wall influencing the sounds included Dinosaur Jr, Warpaint and Casiotone…
Announced last week through the band’s social media and streamed exclusively last night on UK blog More Than Disco, Elastic Sleep‘s new single ‘Slip’, is a step into more steadfast, strident territory, straying from their wandering dream-pop path, with noisy yet dreamy guitars and a Kim Deal-esque bassline being completely battered around by an unreasonably large (and thoroughly satisfying) drum sound and soothed, the edges taken off by the quiet majesty of Muireann Levis‘ vocals. Following on from the haze of this year’s “Leave You” E.P., it makes for a bold next move. From the blurb: Irish quintet ELASTIC SLEEP’s ‘SLIP’ is the…
What a feast for the senses ‘The Hearts Desire’ by Jape is. Aside from being an incredibly enjoyable slice of fidgety, cosmically-inclined electro-pop, its video – created by Conor Finnegan – is the most visually satisfying, boundlessly colourful thing we’ve set our eyes on in quite some time. Dig the track? It will feature on Jape’s forthcoming fifth album, The Chemical Sea, which is set for release in January. Watch the video for ‘The Heart’s Desire’ below.
Equal parts wistful and wonderful, Dublin indie-rock trio Squarehead have unveiled the video for their latest single ‘2025’. Created by Domhnall and Brian Gleeson, the video very nicely captures perhaps the biggest of all the big questions: “Where does the time go?” It confronts it and turns it something of rare beauty – the faint sense of melancholy pales into a return to the “good old days”, and a very fun reminder of Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr’s age-old adage of “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”. It also kind of reminded us of this. ‘2025’ is taken from Squarehead’s exceptional Respect, released last…
Albeit in demo form, ‘House Call’ by Dublin’s Crayonsmith is a lovely little slice of yearning indie-pop, hinting at some great things to come from the band. Culminating in an earworming closing refrain of “When you throw it all away” the track is propelled by its simple three-chord turn, lead guitar nuances and Ciaran Smith’s melancholic vocal delivery. Crayonsmith play Dublin’s Bello Bar this Saturday. Check out our Gigs of the Week here for more info.