• Premiere: Alana Henderson – Let This Remain (Live at the Telegraph Building)

    January 25, 2018 - By 

    Released in November last year, ‘Let This Remain’ by Alana Henderson perfectly distils the Belfast-based cellist and singer-songwriter’s carefully-composed, wonderfully idiosyncratic craft. Revealing the nuance and intimate nature of the song is a new video courtesy of Belfast photographer and filmmaker Joe Laverty. Directed and edited by Laverty – with additional camera work from Jude McCaffrey and Sharon Whittaker, and colour grading from Malachy Campbell – the video features Henderson performing the song with accompaniment from Pleasure Beach’s Alan Haslam at the Belfast Telegraph building, a stark, towering space that has since been reawakened as a venue. Unsurprisingly, the performance is nothing short of utterly…

  • 18 for ’18: Pillow Queens

    January 22, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature of showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up is Pillow Queens. Photo by Ciara Brennan, taken at plantlife.ie Queer, feminist, socialist. How does one encapsulate the pulsating movements of culture and ideals that are currently sweeping across the world, and furthermore, how does one do so colloquially and naturally? Dublin based Pillow Queens have the answer, using more than just their…

  • Video Premiere: Malojian – Beard Song

    January 19, 2018 - By 

    Of the various Northern absentees from this year’s Choice Music Prize, Stevie Scullion’s Malojian (for last year’s This Is Nowhere) was perhaps the most notable. Thankfully, Scullion isn’t one to focus on such things. Having always embodied a forward-moving spirit, his latest album, Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home, is a remarkable effort, confining within its 11 tracks boundless heart and carefully-crafted, collaborative depth. Blurring the lines between wry and sincere, new single ‘Beard Song’ conjures Grandaddy at their most stripped-back and – as we’ve mentioned in relation to Scullion before – the intelligent, economical pop finesse of latter-day Beatles (No one will need reminding that is far from a…

  • David Kitt – Still Don’t Know EP

    January 18, 2018 - By 

    Preceding the March release of his eighth studio album, Dublin indie craftsman David Kitt has just released four-track EP, Still Don’t Know. An extension of the lead single from new album, Yous – out in March – the EP is out via All City Records on 10″, available to buy here in a limited run. Described by Kitt as “a travelogue within a dream, a jump-cut journey that crosses the globe. It’s one of those dreams you don’t want to wake from, where you want to go back under to piece the finer details together” it’s a soothing, typically stellar effort from the chameleonic Dubliner, who, since…

  • Album Premiere: Laurie Shaw – Weird Weekends

    January 18, 2018 - By 

    Based in Cork, 23-year-old Wirral artist Laurie Shaw has self-released approximately 75 albums – as well as one record each on UK imprint Sunstone Records and Dublin’s Little L – over the last few years, steadily establishing himself as a prodigious artist with a strong DIY ethic. Tomorrow he releases his latest full-length, Weird Weekends. A self-proclaimed “nostalgic trip back to teenage-hood, a love letter to the small town of Kenmare where all these narratives originate from”, it’s a brilliantly-realised effort that veers between Bill Ryder Jones-conjuring indie (‘Shatterproof’), inward-looking ballads and laments (‘Skipped Period Blues’, ‘Pink Lightbulb’), as well as straight-up riff-slinging guitar rock. Conjuring…

  • Stream: Paddy Hanna – Toulouse The Kisser

    January 18, 2018 - By 

    Though we’re not short of a first-rate alt-pop troubadour on these shores, Paddy Hanna has tread his very own increasingly compelling path in that realm for some time now. The Dublin songwriter – who is also a member of Autre Monde – will release his new album, Frankly, I Mutate, on March 2. Lifted from that that, new single ‘Toulouse The Kisser’ is a real gem that Hanna has called “a travelogue of drunken misadventure, watching your future waste away and accepting you will become the person to whom people say, “at least I’m not that poor fool”. But what a poor fool. Produced…

  • Stream: Elephant – Waiting Game Part II

    January 18, 2018 - By 

    Dundalk artist and multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke AKA Elephant has been a TTA favourite for some time now.  Bounding with harmonic finesse and a masterfully earnest touch, his shapeshifting alt-pop craft will get the full-length treatment later this year. Ahead of that, ‘Waiting Game Part II’ is a subtle yet slick homespun effort, marrying balmy synths with the song’s stripped-back slow rock surge. At the forefront, once again, is Clarke’s neatly harmonised vocals, quietly bursting with massive heart. Elephant’s strongest single to date? We reckon so. Delve in.

  • Brigid Mae Power – The Two Worlds

    January 22, 2018 - By 

    Firmly established as Ireland’s foremost purveyors of elemental folk, Brigid Mae Power releases her second album, The Two Worlds on February 9 through US label Tompkins Square. Her eponymous 2016 debut garnered unanimous acclaim from the likes of Uncut, Mojo, The Guardian and featured on NPR & BBC programming. The Two Worlds, recorded in Co. Down’s Analogue Catalogue Studio, looks set to consolidate Power’s standing amidst a resurgence of Irish music that has redefined the role of traditional music once more in today’s conversation. Here’s what Brigid had to say about the album: “Most of these songs were written in the last year in Ireland and they’re all about the different feelings I had…

  • 18 for ’18: Silverbacks

    January 17, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature of showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up is Silverbacks. Photo by Colum O’Dwyer Dublin five-piece Silverbacks may have already released a debut album back in 2015, but it’s what they release next that we’re most excited about. That debut, Hot Bath, was a strong starting effort from brothers and primary songwriters Daniel and Kilian O’Kelly – a fairly loose affair that…

  • Watch: Haunch – Twitching

    January 17, 2018 - By 

    The inaugural release from Robyn G Shiels’ new record label, Black Tragick Records, is one of major sonic heft from some of Northern Ireland’s pedigree bringers of the riff. After two years or writing and recording behind closed doors, Haunch release their debut album, Lay My Bones Beside The Others on January 26, and you can watch the video for first single, ‘Twitching’ below. Based in Larne – Larnia, for the rose-tinted – the band comprises Rory McGeown, Michael McKeegan & Willy Mundell, each of whose noisemaking chops are in no doubt, being current & former members of Therapy?, Throat and Dutch Schultz. A seemingly inevitable combination, the trio bonded over a mutual love of…