• Irish Tracks of the Week – June 12th

    June 12, 2020 - By 

    Including premieres of brand new singles by Not I and James Anderson, we round up the best Irish tracks released this week, from Jafaris, Everything Shook, Tebi Rex and Alpha Chrome Yayo to Dott, Goodtime John, Pillow Queens, Susie Blue and Unbelievable Lake. Not I – Please Be Kind [Premiere] James Anderson – Peace [Premiere] Jafaris – Glue Everything Shook – Stand Ajar Stand Ajar by Everything Shook Tebi Rex – I Got My Whole Unbelievable Lake – Forgive Unbelievable Lake · Forgive Susie Blue – Daughter Alpha Chrome Yayo – Tomb Dive Skylight Sessions by Alpha Chrome Yayo Dott –…

  • Stream: Goodtime John – Hang On/Black Sunrise

    June 11, 2020 - By 

    Exactly a year on from releasing one of the Irish albums of the year, Beauty & Chaos, Goodtime John (AKA J. Cowhie, GOODTIME) is back with a stellar brace of gently-rolling, psych-inflected pop. Featuring long time collaborators including Richie Egan aka Jape and Ross Turner (Lisa Hannigan, Villagers) ‘Hang On’ and ‘Black Sunrise’ are equally emphatic efforts that place deft harmonies and refrains center-stage. “These songs have never quite fit on an album to my mind, but have always felt to me that they go hand in hand,” John said. “Cut from the same cloth as it were. In the current…

  • Watch: Pillow Queens – Handsome Wife

    June 11, 2020 - By 

    Few bands earworm quite like Pillow Queens. Having been on our radar since 2017, the Dublin indie quartet will release their debut album, In Waiting, in September. If their new single ‘Handsome Wife’ is anything to go by – and it surely is – we’re in for something special. Featuring wonderful visuals shot and assembled during lockdown, it’s a star-shaped and suitably burrowing gem from the foursome. “‘Handsome Wife’ begins with a glimpse into an emotional homecoming, one that intensifies and romanticises the seemingly insignificant,” the band said. “Throughout, the mundane but tender moments are held up and deified, paying…

  • Video Premiere: Dott – Extra Introvert

    June 11, 2020 - By 

    If there’s any band in Ireland who can lay claim to an Earworm Guarantee™, it may well be Galway’s harmony-laced dream-pop quartet Dott, and new single ‘Extra Introvert’ proves that once more in spades. As interactions return to relative normality in time for summer, the gradual reacquaintance with our old friend social anxiety proves much easier when masked in a seasonally-appropriate bop. Dott were in the midst of recording their third album when the Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to things, but mercifully they’ve delivered us a homespun, all-too-relatable video, made for phone. Featuring lead singer Anna and her many attempts to overcome Lockdown Anxiety, it records the day-to-day of using…

  • Album Stream: Brigid Mae Power – Head Above The Water

    June 5, 2020 - By 

    Her debut release via London’s Fire Records, and her third album overall, Head Above The Water finds Galway’s Brigid Mae Power at their peak of her powers. Recorded at analogue studio The Green Door in Glasgow, from boundlessly earworming opener ‘On A City Night’ to the release’s closing title track, it makes for a perfectly escapist 45 minutes of first-rate cosmic folk from one of the country’s most distinctive songwriting voices. Head Above The Water by Brigid Mae Power

  • Watch: Shifting – Spudgasm

    May 27, 2020 - By 

    Post-hardcore noise rock trio Shifting have announced the release of their debut long-player, with a release date of August 24. To accompany the news, they’ve unveiled the first in a line of accompanying videos for debut single ‘Spudgasm’. A triad of highly-respected Dublin heads – also of No Spill Blood, Hands Up Who Wants To Die, amongst others – Shifting are Paul Clynes and brothers Matt & Lewis Hedigan. In line with their other work, and akin to late 80s/early 90s Touch & Go Records, their music is an acerbic blend of gut-wreching yet dynamic repetition, nihilistic cackling, and the unmistakably razorsharp, wiry guitar work. You’d be hard-pressed to…

  • Watch: Song Sung – Telling Tales

    May 27, 2020 - By 

    Monaghan born, Brooklyn-based twin sisters Georgina and Una McGeough aka Song Sung first came to our attention via David Holmes’ stellar Late Night Tales compilation back in 2016. Along with the likes of Belfast drone-pop heroes Documenta, their take on 10cc’s ‘I’m Not In Love’ proved a wonderfully spectral peak from the release. Four years on, the pair are primed to release their debut album, This Ascension Is Ours, on July 3st. Teaming up once more with Holmes – who co-wrote and produced the album with fellow composer and Unloved bandmate Keefus Ciancia – it promises ten tracks of sublime spectral pop from the Irish sister duo. New single ‘Telling Tales’ is…

  • Album Stream: Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Stir

    May 22, 2020 - By 

    While it’s early days yet, Limerick’s Bleeding Heart Pigeons have just made their claim to one of the Irish albums of the year. Arriving four years on from their debut album Is, Stir was written and recorded in a small converted farm-shed in rural West Limerick and finds the threesome in alchemical form. From opener, the sorcerous ‘Bubble Boy’ to closer ‘Good Dogs Never Die’ – a track that doubles up as one of many peaks on display here – it emphatically consolidates the Michael Keating-fronted band’s forward-pushing alt/indie craft down to twelve tracks. Stir by Bleeding Heart Pigeons

  • Album Stream: Joel Harkin – Never Happy

    May 19, 2020 - By 

    Over the last few months, Donegal singer-songwriter Joel Harkin has steadily cast a spell upon us and many others via first-rate singles ‘Vada’, ‘No Recycling’ and ‘Thought I’d Go Home’. Collectively, they are but three peaks from Harkin’s exquisite debut album, Never Happy, which is released today. Produced by George Sloan at Half Bap Studios, it’s a masterfully focused, filler-free release from the Belfast-based artist, distilling his brand of alternative folk down to ten tracks, each as inviting and incisive as the next. Delve in below. Never Happy by Joel Harkin

  • Premiere: Tuath – I Am But a Poor Man (But I Have Got Cans)

    May 18, 2020 - By 

    In times of duress, it helps to have a mantra to keep things firmly within the realms of perspective. In the case of the North West’s foremost psych-inflected experimental rock band Tuath, “I am a poor man but I have cans” is an incantation so worthy it doubles up as the title of the Robert Mulhern-fronted band’s new single. Taken from their forthcoming mini-album, the singularly-titled The Fuckening, it’s another sorcerous dose of spaced-out exploration from the Donegal band. Featuring Sega Megadrive MIDI exploits and more, it makes for a suitably shapeshifting effort across three minutes. Have a first look at Kieran Devlin’s video…