• Premiere: That Snaake – Scofflaw // Sisyphus

    October 18, 2016 - By 

    We’ve a lot of time for Dublin’s That Snaake. Cutting a singular figure in a scene of prevailing alt-rock uniformity, the Paul O’Connor-fronted quartet’s live shows are some akin to shock-and-awe; a steady blitzkrieg of carefully honed noise and unrelenting disdain. Taken from their forthcoming second EP, Blinded By The Smell (“the melodious outward looking companion to the short-sighted tumultuous rage of [their debut EP] At Swim One Stone“) we’re pleased to premiere the band’s new single ‘Scofflaw // Sisyphus’. According to the band, “It tells the story of an ageing musician who played a bit part in the Commitments desperately trying to…

  • Video Premiere: The Urges – Echoes Softly

    October 17, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of premiering their second album, Time Will Pass, next week, we’re pleased to present a first look at the video for ‘Echoes Softly’ by Dublin psychedelic garage trailblazers The Urges. Filmed in Florence during an Italian tour last year, the video was directed by Amos Kahana and features Julien Vannucchi as Director of Photography. The single is now available via iTunes and all other usual online outlets as a download only. The Urges launch Time Will Pass at Dublin’s Grand Social on Saturday, October 29.

  • Watch: Burnt Out – Joyrider

    October 14, 2016 - By 

    Back in March we featured North Dublin multi-disciplinary project Burnt Out in our physical magazine, discussing their origins, class disparity, misrepresentation and their stellar debut single ‘Dear James‘. The piece presented the project as one of the country’s most authentic and unequivocal artistic propositions and a a group of firmly rooted in working class society, raging against the distinct under-appreciation of their culture. Six months on, they have resurfaced ‘Joyrider’, a masterfully cathartic audio-visual statement confronting the “systematic concept of masculinity with regard to violence and emotions, aiming to highlight the destructive nature masculine expectation has on the adolescent and those surrounding”. Burnt Out…

  • Magic Pockets – Volcano of the Bleeding Skies

    October 12, 2016 - By 

    With a beautiful, Roger Dean-esque album cover befitting a ’70s proggy Krautrock cult classic, Ruadhan O’Meara AKA Magic Pockets has unveiled his debut album titled Volcano of the Bleeding Skies. Also known for providing the synthesised sonic tapestries in Dublin noise-merchants No Spill Blood, O’Meara’s album comes out via Cork label Penske Recordings – home also to The Altered Hours and Woven Skull – on Friday, November 25. Expect a world of psychedelic & minimal synthscapes from the album, which was recorded using vintage synthesisers, drum machines, electronics and manipulated samples, recorded to 1 inch tape. In the same way the likes of Boards of Canada have…

  • Watch: Buckles n’ Son – Pancake Paradise

    October 8, 2016 - By 

    A self-proclaimed weird hip-hop duo, Dublin’s Conor Buckley and Shawn Mkandala AKA Buckles n’ Son caught our attention with their superb cover of Thundercat’s ‘Them Changes’ back in May. With its wonderfully warped melange of hip-hop beats, woozy synths, blips, beeps, bizarro lyrics and soulful/psycho vocal zig-zagging, the multi-instrumentalist pair have returned with new single,  ‘Pancake Paradise’. Watch its video – directed by Alex Harrison and featuring animation/co-direction from Kav – below. ‘Pancake Paradise’ is taken from Buckles n’ Son’s forthcoming five-track EP, Demo, which is launched via Clockwork on Friday (October 14) at Dublin’s Wigwam.

  • EP Stream: Myronik – North/South

    October 10, 2016 - By 

    A six-track “audio diary” borne from travelling New Zealand for a year, North/South by 25 year old Dublin producer Liam Myers AKA Myronik features collected samples of various sounds and environments, from birds to instruments to various sound objects that Myers tried to recreate the emotions that “this amazing country evoked in me.” But far from an ad hoc series of tracks made simply to time-freeze a fond journey, the release is a masterfully assembled document of pastoral ambient, understated electronica and inspired experimentalism. In case you missed it, check out our Track Record with Myronik here. North/South by Myronik

  • Inbound: Whim

    October 6, 2016 - By 

    Whim AKA Sarah Di Muzio was born and raised in San Francisco but moved to Portland “in favour of rain and indie Pacific Northwest music”. A visit to Ireland in April 2015 saw her fall in love with Galway, probably for the same reasons, and she has lived here ever since. At only twenty years old she possesses an ability to craft clever indie-folk-pop tunes, the kind that wouldn’t seem out of place in that particularly American brand of quirky hipster rom-com. In fact, her second EP, The Funeral Guest – released in 2015 – was soundtrack to a movie…

  • Album Stream: Zinc – Zinc

    October 6, 2016 - By 

    Galway based post-rock trio Zinc have spent the first two years of their existence patiently honing a sound that blends their respective musical backgrounds together into a neat instrumental package. Their self-titled debut, mixed by Solar Bears’ and Leo Drezden‘s Rian Trench, is a fitting testament to that careful moulding together of styles, with the sporadic jazz influences sitting comfortably among the trip-hop, electronic and punk elements throughout its seven cuts. Originating as a purely instrumental act, the group, comprised of Simon Kenny (drums), Aengus Hackett (guitar) and Andrew Madec (bass), began expanding on melodic and rhythmic motifs to create something definitive while maintaining a free-form…

  • Premiere: Beach – Ono Noh

    October 5, 2016 - By 

    One of our must-see acts at Hard Working Class Heroes this weekend, Dublin five-piece Beach aren’t likely to be neatly defined any time soon. Recently proclaimed one of the “most interesting prospects on the Irish scene” the Dave Barrett-fronted band certainly have a sturdy leg to stand on, blending dusky slacker rock, electronica and contorted psychedelia on tracks including ‘Moon Smoke’, ‘Arabia’ and, most recently, the brilliantly bastardised jazz-punk of ‘Donuts’. Exploring more ruminating territory, the band’s new single ‘Ono Noh’ conjures Black Heart Procession-like lamenting via Depeche Modesque atmospherics and – particularly Barrett and backing vocalist/lead guitarist Alex Conway’s vocals – Queens of the Stone Age at their more sober and restrained. With another single…

  • Inbound: Drown

    October 4, 2016 - By 

    It’s pretty apt that this year is the 25th anniversary of Nirvana’s performance in Sir Henry’s in Cork and that Ireland currently finds its alternative music scene in pretty rude health. Leading the pack are Girl Band with their idiosyncratic and innovative post punk no doubt. However, there a slew of other equally excellent bands popping up throughout the whole island at what seems like a weekly basis. Galway’s Drown are one such group. Named after a Smashing Pumpkins song and only forming late last year, the level of confidence and familiarity they play with on their self titled debut EP,…