Heft, beautiful heft. Hands down one of the country’s finest heavy psych propositions, Dublin quartet Wild Rocket have returned with the fuzzed-out, low-end, bastardised cosmic mastery of ‘The Future Echoes’. Taken from their forthcoming second studio album, Disassociation Mechanics – released via the mighty Art for Blind on July 7 – the track has a brand new (and suitably impressive) video courtesy of Thomas Parkes. Check it out below.
Having assumingly just dried off from Forbidden Fruit at the weekend, Cork artist Eoin French AKA Talos is back with another sublime audio-visual offering in the form of ‘Contra’. Featuring a video shot in Roundstone, Connemara in Co. Galway by Talos manager and collaborator Brendan Canty, the track is a blossoming burst of electro-pop that doubles up as a highlight fro French’s recently released debut album, Wild Alee. Speaking about the video, Canty said, “We wanted to explore the idea of the uncanny – finding the strange in something ordinary. Using the West of Ireland as a canvas we wanted to…
Lushly arranged Irish eight-piece Sun Collective release their debut album, Snarky Puppy-style, with a show at on Saturday June 10. Led by songwriter & composer Caimin Gilmore – who plays as the double-bassist with Lisa Hannigan – they’re comprised of classical and jazz musicians from some of Ireland’s leading groups, including Crash Ensemble. Written by Gilmore and Shane Sugrue and crafted over four years at studios in London (SARM West, of Island Records & Miloca Studios), Dublin (Steve Shannon, The Hive) and Australia. The ensemble features string trio, two pianos, three high male voices, double bass & percussion, filtered through the lens…
Just off the back of the release of their fourth album, Dreaming Tracks, Belfast three-piece Sea Pinks graced the cover of the second issue of our magazine back in November, 2014. Almost three years on, album number six, Watercourse, finds the Neil Brogan-fronted band at the peak of their most ruminative, surf-dappled and jangle-popped best. Striking yet another keen balance between dream and power pop, the album’s ten tracks slot into a half-hour running time – testament, not that it’s necessarily needed, to the refined punch and finesse of the band’s craft to date. Speaking of the album, Brogan said, “The…
An “ode to the welcome stretch in the Dublin summer’s evenings, spent largely at the Portobello section of the canal in South Dublin” ‘Summer’s Here’ by Dublin’s Niall Jackson AKA Swimmers Jackson is the most charming summer song™ that we’ve heard from an Irish artist in quite some time. Equal parts celebratory and wistful, the single finds Jackson – who has been living out of the country for 18 months now – marrying breezy reflection with some rather beautiful harmonies. Have a first listen to the track and check out Bouts’ bassist Jackson’s eighteen-track, self-explanatory Summer Songs playlist below.
Having left a considerable dent with her A Cappella cover of Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ back in March, Dublin chanteuse Naoise Roo is back with ‘Almost Perfect’, the fourth single from her exceptional debut album, Lilith. Launched last night in Dublin, the song is a masterfully melancholic and brilliantly candid insight into the mind of the artist, who has teamed up with Cork-based visual artist and filmmaker Chris O’Neill for the release. O’Neill – whose stripped-back, lo-fi visuals elevates the single to a whole new soul-baring realm – said: “Lilith is, in my opinion, amongst the finest albums released by an Irish artist in recent…
Whilst you might know him for his distinctive animation work for the likes of fellow Northern Irish songsmiths Malojian, Robyn G Shiels and Our Krypton Son as Lumo, Belfast-based musician Richard Davis has also been crafting some exceptional sounds as Heliopause for a number of years now. Released early last year, his third album How Can We Laugh After This… married subtly-woven soundscapes with pining tales of redemption, and explored a range of themes and sounds over twelve tracks. A highlight from that, new single ‘Falling (Part 2)’ tussles with the powerful birth of attachment to another, a motif nicely reflected in the single’s (naturally)…
Cork metalcore maestros BAILER are back with a fierce new single in the form of ‘In For A Penny, In For A Pound’. Rounded off with one of the more curious Irish music videos we’ve seen in a while – an accompaniment the quartet aptly summed as featuring “skateboarding gorillas drinking Buckfast and Dutch Gold, and engaging in a high action chase with raging hicks in a Honda Civic” – it’s another pleasingly face-melting effort that is worth it for that pinch harmonic at 1.32 alone. You’ll never watch Planet of the Apes the same way again.
With the prospect of up to three new albums set for release before the end of the year, (presumed) Northern Irish punk-funk masked duo Pinner are back with a new video single, ‘Head For The Bedlam’. Released in advance of forthcoming radio single ‘Incendiary’ – which will be released ahead of Return of the Pin Vol.2: Bloody Murder Picture on June 1 – this new effort is a typically left-of-centre blast of wilfully DIY garage from the pair, whose penchant for and ease at genre-hopping should fully reveal itself on forthcoming full-length releases throughout 2017. In the meantime, have a first peek…
A highlight from the latest Culture Glitch compilation, ‘Relatives’ by Derry producer John McDaid AKA Planting is a track that marries somnambulism and morning light just as effectively as it blends spectral ambience with glitchy textures and rhythms across its four minutes. Lending the track a whole new layer of cinematic panache is its accompanying visuals, courtesy of Derry filmmaker Michael Barwise. Featuring a range of black and white shots – from static scenes and intimate moments to muted, semi-mystical moments of nature – it drives home the longing air of the music in compelling fashion. Have a first look of that below.