• Premiere: chxmist – Waiting For You (feat Anna Mooney)

    April 15, 2021 - By 

    Like many independent Irish producers over the last few months, chxmist has found the headspace, and inspiration, to eke out art from strained times. Following on from remixing TOYGIRL and producing for rapper FYNCH, the Dublin-based artist has teamed up with Galway’s Anna Mooney for a slick dose of electropop that filters the promise of much brighter days to come. Bearing the imprint of the likes of Jon Hopkins and Jamie xx, ‘Waiting For You is a forward-pushing earworm that, in the words of chxmist, hopes to strike “a sonic balance between the darkness of a lockdown and the relief,…

  • Stream: Sun Collective – Ogham Scars

    April 15, 2021 - By 

    Blurring the lines between chamber pop, indie rock and contemporary folk, the craft of Dublin’s Sun Collective strikes a midpoint between delicate and resolute.  Featuring from Saint Sister’s Gemma Doherty on harp, it’s an M.O. that their new single, ‘Ogham Scars’, takes and runs with. Marrying the gossamer beauty of a long-lost Cinematic Orchestra track with the burgeoning deep ambience of latter-day Massive Attack, it’s a triumphant return, produced by Ross Turner and recorded by Ber Quinn. Speaking about the song, the group’s frontman Caimin Gilmore says, “I robbed the title (& possibly the entire meaning) of ‘Ogham Scars’ from the work of painter, John Noel…

  • Premiere: Robin Olly James – Red Tor

    April 14, 2021 - By 

    As the bassist in Galway DIY metal/hardcore five-piece Ilenkus, Robin Olly James has played his part in melting a fair few faces over the years. In more recent times, however, collaborations with artists such as James Lonergan, Eoin Dolan and The BVs have revealed an artist versed in myriad guises and realms. Today, James drives that fact home with ‘Red Tor,’ a slowly unravelling dose of darkly, experimental electronica. A collaboration with James Sheridan, Philip Mc Mahon and Joseph Padfield, it’s a curiously entrancing effort, hitting like the claustrophobic inverse of Föllakzoid’s more recent explorations in cyclical, techno-inflected psych. Created and co-directed by award-winning visual artist James Sheridan, co-directed by Philip…

  • Stream: Chris Con – Around She Goes

    April 14, 2021 - By 

    As one of the country’s most accomplished drummers, working with the likes of Solar Bears, Contour, Leo Drezden and Pierce Turner, Chris Con has long been known for his dexterity and finesse. Now, the musician is stepping out on his own. Marking his first foray as a fully-fledged solo proposition, ‘Around She Goes’ is a deftly composed gem filtering that refined subtlety across a full spectrum of sounds. Taken from an EP, which is set to be released in the summer, the track is almost Wild Beasts-ian in its marriage of scopic pop and sublime falsetto. While it feels freeing –…

  • Premiere: Cormorant Tree Oh – Zip Issues

    April 1, 2021 - By 

    Cormorant Tree Oh is the music-making moniker of Dublin-based multi-disciplinary artist Mary Keane. Three years on from the release of her self-titled debut album, today she confirms she’s one of the country’s most compelling experimental solo artists. Taken from her forthcoming second album, new single ‘Zip Issues’ mines Keane’s command of folk horror revivalism, and plays like a four-minute phantasm in song. Marrying skeletal balalaika and disembodied samples with low-lying synth organ lines and – a focal point here – Keane’s arresting vocals, it doubles as one of our favourite Irish tracks of the year thus far. According to Keane, the song – which in…

  • Premiere: Comrade Hat – Deep Sleep

    March 29, 2021 - By 

    Shapeshifting Derry-based musical polymath Neil Burns, aka Comrade Hat has just announced details of his new album, Old Gods, Vol. 1, which is set for release on April 13. Its final single is ‘Deep Sleep’, which we’re happy to share ahead of its popping on Bandcamp. Part experimentalism, part finely honed pop songcraft, it draws upon the familiar sounds of confessional, lonesome Americana, mystique, and glistening, low-key-yet-expansive 80s-recalling spectral echoes – possibly stemming from a Canadian stint. Equally, its sense of glacial, otherly pastoralism is not unlike that of experimental, avant-pop singers like David Sylvian, Talk Talk and Mary Margaret O’Hara, with his trademark self-deprecation…

  • Watch: Lilac – Remember, No Regrets

    March 25, 2021 - By 

    Scuzzy, unpretentious power-pop with a panache for irresistible jangle, fuzz & hooks is something that’s trickled into the water in Ireland, forming a fine cultural lineage – look no further than Good Vibrations Records and Thin Lizzy, and more recently, Pillow Queens. Trim-based sibling duo Oisín & Cian Walsh form the creative hub of Lilac, and today released their earworm of a new single ‘Remember, No Regrets’, which filters Ty Segall-esque saturated fuzz with 90s indie & psych-pop – completely self-produced in the band’s home studio. Initially set to be released pre-pandemic, they’ve pressed the record to 7″ vinyl, and it’s available…

  • Video Premiere: Invaderband – I Won’t Remember You

    March 23, 2021 - By 

    One of the most idiosyncratic garage/art-rock propositions anywhere on the island, Invaderband is the music-making moniker of Derry-based Mancunian Adam Leonard. Backed by the likes of fellow Derry artist Chris McConaghy aka Our Krypton Son on guitar, he’s been responsible for some irrestisible punk-pop gems over the last few years. Clocking in at just over two minutes, new single ‘I Won’t Remember You’ is a textbook case in point. The lead single from the band’s second LP, Peter Gabriel, it’s a breakneck burst of garage-pop evoking late-70s English punk immediacy à la Buzzcocks and Wire. Speaking about the track, Leonard said, “It’s not about…

  • Stream: M(h)aol – Asking For It

    March 18, 2021 - By 

    Given the length of time they’ve been around for in one form or another, it’s hard to believe that M(h)aol had, before today, only released two singles – their last being 2020’s ‘Laundries‘, concerning the historic systematic oppression of women in Ireland. The power and economy in saying precisely what to needs to be said, when it needs to be said, is what has seen the five-piece labelled as the most vital voice in Irish punk – and  post-punk, for that matter – pushing discourse forward with songs as razor-sharp as their message. Currently based between Dublin, London and Bristol, M(h)aol’s new single ‘Asking For It’  – originally set…

  • Premiere: Zizou – After It’s Done

    March 17, 2021 - By 

    You might have come across Mathieu Doogan’s Zizou project last year when we waxed lyrical about debut single ‘Living On A Plateau‘. The Dublin-based artist is back with the contemplative ‘After It’s Done’. Charmingly homespun and low-key unpredictable, it recalls the indie folktronica of Chad VanGaalen or something from the early noughties years of Merge & Matador Records. Resplendent with Doogan’s signature baritone, freewheeling indie-jazz guitar noodling, organic keys and a range of acoustic textures, it begs for repeat listening. He told us more: “The song came about when I was experimenting with acoustic and electronic instruments, trying to make banjos, violins and synths complement each other. Lyrically, the…