• Album Premiere: Rory Grubb – Water House

    June 23, 2016 - By 

    Recorded in an old mill in Kilkenny, a wooden cabin in Carlow and a Georgian basement in Dublin over two very cold winters, Water House is the third album by Dublin artist Rory Grubb. Debuting Grubb’s much-admired creation, the Electric Ceramophone (a huge percussion instrument made from tuned clay pots) the release is a genre-warping, lo-fi gem evoking the likes of Beat Happening, The Microphones and Jeffrey Lewis. Largely opting for sampler keyboards and custom-made instruments throughout the release, Grubb has concocted another singular effort bursting with melody and bold experimentalism. Grubb launches Water House at Dublin’s Bello Bar on Friday night with support from Ross…

  • Stream: Cruising – My Twin Sister

    June 22, 2016 - By 

    Comprised of members of Sea Pinks, Logikparty, Girls Names and September Girls, Irish post-punk supergroup-of-sorts Cruising reared their scuzzy little head back in November 2013 with an early version of ‘You Made Me Do That‘ (it kicked ass – still does). Having thoroughly cemented that promise with their self-titled EP back in August last year, the band have re-emerged with ‘My Twin Sister’, a propulsive new effort that is quintessentially Cruising at its core, not least in its a locked-in rhythm section and straight-up punk strut. Stream/buy the track via Bandcamp below. My Twin Sister by CRUISING

  • Hard Working Class Heroes Call For Musician and Band Applications

    June 22, 2016 - By 

    Arguably the country’s leading celebration of homegrown, independent music, Hard Working Class Heroes will return to Dublin from October 6-8. With the likes of Hare Squead, Saint Sister and Rusangano Family standing out last year, the festival have made its annual call to the country’s musicians, bands and singer-songwriters to apply to play this year’s showcase.  You can apply via HWCH’s Breaking Tunes site; simply go here and click the ‘BANDS APPLY HERE’ button. The closing date for applications is July 22. Early bird tickets to Hard Working Class Heroes 2016 are priced at €35 via DICE until August 10, after which tickets will…

  • Watch: Trick Mist – Crumbs Abound

    June 22, 2016 - By 

    Irish native, Manchester based Gavin Murray AKA Trick Mist  returns this month with a new split 7″ release, his first since his debut EP Jars in Rows landed last October. ‘Crumbs Abound’ follows on from the dark, metallic electronic backdrops of Jars, introducing a desert folk guitar motif to the mix, giving further depth to Murray’s gravelly baritone. The other side of the release features a track from fellow Irish musician Video Blue.  To coincide with the track, the video for ‘Crumbs Abound is a stark, abstract piece by director Graham Patterson. Trick Mist and Video Blue will play Whelan’s this Saturday the 25th of June with support from Participant. Further…

  • Watch: Girl Band – In Plastic

    June 21, 2016 - By 

    Surrealism is no unbeaten path for Girl Band, and the latest video from the Dublin noise-rock darlings, as usual directed by long-time collaborator Bob Gallagher, takes matters in a much more grimly funny direction. Set in a security line, somewhere, someplace, the video for ‘In Plastic’ mirrors in Gallagher’s inimitable manner the current paranoia around borders, travel, and security, as things quickly unravel for our nameless protagonist. Speaking with Spin mag in the States, Gallagher expands on its themes: “the video is obviously totally ridiculous in many ways, but it touches on themes of surveillance, paranoia, and how arbitrary the…

  • Minor Victories – Minor Victories

    June 21, 2016 - By 

    Just because some things seem like they could go together, doesn’t mean they should. Everyone can agree that roller coasters are fun, as is coitus, however, if you were to meld them though you’d probably end up as the subject of one of those Snopes verified urban legends. An album such as Minor Victories, the eponymous debut from a new supergroup featuring the Editors’ Justin Lockey, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, and Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite, is the aural equivalent of the aforementioned Alton Towers copulation. Take every individual component on offer and you’ve got a recipe special; A record which might potentially…

  • Album Premiere: The Fiction Aisle – Fuchsia Days

    June 16, 2016 - By 

    Led by former Electric Soft Parade/Brakes musical polymath Thomas White, The Fiction Aisle are a Brighton-based musical collective whose second album, Fuschia Days, establishes them as a singular alt-pop force in the making. Spanning seven tracks, the album – which we’re pleased to premiere here – is a remarkably immersive release, striking a keen, almost meditatively restrained balanced between ambient, dream-pop and drone in the vein of Robert Wyatt, Broadcast and Flaming Lips‘ more symphonic efforts. With White’s monophonic Oberheim OB-1 synth at the heart of the mesmeric soundtrack-like quality of the album, it’s a wistful, beautifully-rendered journey traversing everything from true love, ecstasy and death to depression,…

  • Inbound: Elephant

    June 16, 2016 - By 

    With a busy few months ahead of him, including the release of new single ‘Stay With Me’ and a slot at Body & Soul at the weekend, Dundalk-based multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke AKA Elephant is an artist carving out his own wonderfully inimitable path. Eoin Murray chats to him about his debut LP, Hypergiant, new stirrings and what it means to be a musician beyond the city. Since Hypergiant came out last October what have you been up to? Well I spent the end of last year gigging the album around. I decided at the beginning of this year to take a wee break…

  • Stream: I Am The Cosmos – Letting It Go

    June 16, 2016 - By 

    Set to launch at Dublin’s Bello Bar on July 16 , ‘Letting It Go’ sees Dublin electronic duo Ross Turner and Cian Murphy AKA I Am The Cosmos re-capture the magic that set them apart on their 2013 debut album, Monochrome. Wilfully sparse to begin, the track unwinds in typically commanding fashion, each cyclical re-iteration yielding new shades of propulsive, synth-laden magic from the pair. Set for release via Happy Valley on July 1, there’s an almost mechanical simplicity to the track that proves delightfully deceptive with repeated listens. Mastered by Simon Cullen, the single comes with b-side Taciturning On You and a re-imagining of the…

  • Premiere: Hiva Oa – A Great Height

    June 15, 2016 - By 

    Not merely the second largest island in the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia, Hiva Oa are a Belfast duo set to release their long-awaited new EP mk2 (part 1) on August 5. Having returned to their native Ireland after residing in Edinburgh, Stephen Houlihan and Christine Tubridy turn their attention to the laws and imprint of fear, loneliness, abandonment and awakening on the new release, something that’s impressively manifest on its lead single ‘A Great Height’. Evoking the likes of PVT, The Twilight Sad and a more inward-looking Not Squares, the track’s swirling flurry of contorting electronica, weaving bass patterns and braying guitar swells meld…