• Premiere: Slouch – It’s Not a Man Abandons Post

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    Never ones to sit on an idea for too long, pragmatic, scuzzy South Dubliners Slouch have followed up previous double A-side their whiteboyfilingcabinetfaxmachinestapler release from March with another, titled It’s Not a Man Abandons Post. A lethargically-paced brace that reaffirms what we learned from its predecessor – that you’d never get a hard day’s work out of the lads – It’s Not a Man… sees Slouch really lean into their name on this one, conjuring more slack indie rock by way of Weezer and the Seattle sound this time around, the Loctite rhythm section proving more than adequate foil for Conor Wilson’s Xanax’d-out vocal. The release is the…

  • Watch: Stoat – Try Not To Think About It

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    A self-proclaimed “stylistically inconsistent” indie-pop/rock trio, Dublin/Wexford’s Stoat have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘Try Not To Think About It’. The title song – and third single – from the forthcoming new album, which is due in the summer, the band have said the track is in the “same ballpark” as Beasties Boys and Talking Heads. We can certainly hear that. See for yourself, and check out the single’s wonderfully DIY visuals.

  • Stream: Gadget and the Cloud – Continue

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    Cork producer Kelly Doherty AKA Gadget and the Cloud has returned with her strongest track to date in the form of ‘Continue’. A skilfully layered, emotively dense effort, the intent that underpins the single – which sounds like ‘Ful Stop’ by Radiohead re-imagined with euphoria and release firmly in mind – proves virulent from start to finish. This is a deceptively ambitious slice of downtempo, trip-hop inflected electronica that hits home and then some. Keep an eye out for Doherty’s forthcoming mini-album, Deceased Estate, which is set to drop at some point this summer.

  • Album Stream: FIXITY – FIXITY 3

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    Over the last couple of years Cork’s FIXITY have established themselves to be one of the country’s consistently intriguing sonic propositions. Composed and steered by Cork multi-instrumentalist Dan Walsh, the project’s explored in collective improvisation with other individuals three different releases, most recently December’s The Things In The Room. Tied together with masterfully loose conviction, new mini-album FIXITY 3 is is solo-produced album is a sprawling seven-track descent into free-form ambient textures, free jazz tangents and psychedelic colour. Performed and produced by Walsh, it’s a release that, in conjuring the more cosmically-inclined reverberations of Albert Ayler, Jessamine, Tortoise, Klaus Schulze and the Residents, offers…

  • Stream a new Twin Peaks-themed cover EP from Our Krypton Son

    May 22, 2017 - By 

    Unless you’ve been living under a very sizeable rock recently, you’ll know David Lynch and Mark Frost’s seminal serial drama Twin Peaks returned for its long-awaited third season last night. Marking the occasion in exquisite fashion, Derry singer-songwriter – and one of our featured 17 for 17 acts – Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son has unveiled a four-track, Twin Peaks-themed cover EP, Music From Blackfoot River. As well as Angelo Badalamenti/Julee Cruise gems ‘Falling’ and ‘Nightingale’ – both of which feature in the original Twin Peaks – the wonderfully lo-fi release features takes on ‘In Dreams’ and the the eponymous track…

  • EP Stream: Galants – Galants

    May 19, 2017 - By 

    In case you missed the memo: Dublin noise-pop quartet Galants rule. Evoking the varyingly shaded, feedback-soaked lulls and barrages of Dinosaur Jr., Teenage Fanclub, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Swervedriver and Yo La Tengo, the band have caught our attention on numerous occasions of the last couple of years. Something of a feature-length culmination of this particular phase in the journey to date, their self-titled EP – which sees David Kennedy, James McDonald, Colin O’Dwyer and Ruairi Paxton concoct some real magic over four tracks – has now been release on 10″ via UK imprint Zen Ten. Delve in below. Galants by Galants

  • Stream: Isobel Anderson – Feed Me/Effortless Pain Relief

    May 19, 2017 - By 

    Having recently released the wistful ‘Flint Shingle’ – a track we called a “delicately textured, perfectly phantasmal ambient effort” – Belfast-based artist Isobel Anderson has return with its follow-up, ‘Feed Me’. A track that once more sees Anderson’s command of harmony and counterpoint blend with textures and rhythms that weave in wonderful patterns, it makes for an exquisite four minutes from the Sussex-born musician. Better still, the spectral, reverberating meditation that is ‘Effortless Pain Relief’ proves an equally enchanting b-side. Two of her strongest tracks to date, we reckon.

  • EP Stream: Silverbacks – Sink The Fat Moon

    May 19, 2017 - By 

    Set for a midnight launch at Whelan’s next Saturday night (May 27), Sink The Fat Moon by Dublin indie rock five-piece Silverbacks will sure rank up there with our favourite Irish releases of the year come December. A plinking, squalling five-track sweep of scuzzed-out tangents and lo-fi passages, it marries the patent – yet very impressively wrought – imprint of the likes of Parquet Courts, Sonic Youth and Pavement in fine fashion, revealing a band whose knack for forging something new from the aforementioned influence is really a delight to behold. For a sub-genre oversaturated with clumsily disaffected amour-propre, Silverbacks wield a far more natural…

  • Watch: Count Vaseline – Russia

    May 18, 2017 - By 

    Currently based in Atlanta, GA Dublin’s Stefan Murphy has set off on a compelling, genre-spanning and decidedly DIY solo journey as Count Vaseline following the disbanding of The Mighty Stef in May last year. A highlight from his second solo album, Cascade – a release Murphy has astutely called a self-contained “micro-universe” – ‘Russia’ is a timely release that, via a stripped back but layered sound that conjures the likes of Darklands-era Jesus and Mary Chain, meditates on and tussles with the the mystery of the past the precariousness of the future. Better still, Murphy vocals – emphatic as ever – veer into perfectly melodic, ear-worming…

  • Via: Barvikha – Chengdu EP

    May 17, 2017 - By 

    Belfast singer-songwriter Chris Leckey, aka Via: Barvikha releases debut EP, Chengdu, on June 16. The EP was written around a period of significant life change, as Leckey was uprooted to a new home 5329 miles away – the titular Chengdu – before coming back five months later. Channelling a brooding intensity never articulated as dynamically with his past hardcore outfit PigsAsPeople, Leckey has found a waypoint via common denominator Brand New to the darkly raw places of yearning, conjured by of Jason Molina and other quintessentially authentic Steve Albini-produced folk. Following up on a short string of singles from 2015, Chengdu is released through Belfast indie label Abbreviated Records on June 16. It was recorded & produced by the titular…