• Premiere: I Am The Cosmos – Nothing But Love

    November 17, 2017 - By 

    The follow-up to 2016’s Letting It Go 12″ single and 2013’s Monochrome LP, Dublin-based electronic duo Ross Turner and Cian Murphy AKA I Am The Cosmos are back with a new four-track EP titled ‘Nothing But Love’. Written, produced, recorded and mixed in the National Concert Hall, Dublin and scheduled for a vinyl release via the ever-reliable Art For Blind on 12″ vinyl on December 15, it’s another masterfully propulsive, slickly effort from the pair. Each track here is straight-up dancefloor fire and no mistake. Have a first listen below. Photo by Cait Fahey.

  • Video Premiere: Trick Mist – Fraction

    November 11, 2017 - By 

    On last Thursday’s edition of our show on Dublin Digital Radio we debuted the new single from an artist we’ve become rather fond of in the past two years. Gavin Murray AKA Trick Mist‘s blend of skilled songwriting, atmospheric electronics and percussion, and looped violins make him a solo artist whose output has only improved since we first came across it. Now, the newly Cork-based artist who had lived in Manchester for the past number of years, delivers his most mature work to date in the form of ‘Fraction’, a track in two halves that blends echoed vocals and layers of violin and…

  • Premiere: CATALAN! – Alive

    November 1, 2017 - By 

    Back in July we presented a first look and listen to ‘OKA’, the debut solo single from CATALAN! AKA Ewen Friers of North Coast alt-punk three-piece Axis Of. What we said of that track (“whilst certainly redolent of the subtly anthemic and nicely bombastic alt-punk of the aforementioned North Coast outfit, explores new, socially-conscious territory) could be directly applied to new single, ‘Alive’. Featuring some great visuals courtesy of Tristan Crowe and Chrissie McGlinchy, it’s a fuzzed-out and perfectly trouncing effort that will almost certainly become something of a live favourite for the project in the coming months.

  • Premiere: The Sunshine Factory – Seer

    November 1, 2017 - By 

    Cork, ever Ireland’s unexpected cornerstone of hazy psych, can boast another addition to the canon in the The Sunshine Factory‘s new single ‘Seer’, which we’re delighted to premiere here. This comes alongside the announcement of their debut EP proper, Cruelest Animal, the title track of which was released last year following a string of extremely promising demos and homemade recordings. Towering out of the speaker like some meta-diegetic music recorded live from a cave to soundtrack a climactic David Lynch scene – probably one of Evil Coop walking cooly away from a major explosion – ‘Seer”s measured, primal urgency, gives way to an incredible synth motif – think Vangelis’ Blade Runner Blues – before settling into a mess of rusty, screeching guitars.…

  • Video Premiere: Lankum – The Granite Gaze

    October 27, 2017 - By 

    Few things are more satisfying than seeing a homegrown act or artist get the attention they so richly deserve further afield. Having spent several years as forging out their own inimitable – and increasingly compelling – alt-folk path as Lynched, Dublin quartet Lankum release their new album, Between the Earth and Sky, via Rough Trade today. Having already received a wave of critical acclaim via the likes of the Guardian, the release is a masterclass of vital and deftly crafted song confirming the foursome’s uncanny knack for transformative, contemporarily-framed traditional song. A nigh on hymnal peak from the new album, ‘The Granite Gaze’ – a…

  • Track-by-Track: Feather Beds – Blooming

    October 26, 2017 - By 

      Ahead of the release of his second album Blooming, Dublin’s Michael Orange AKA Feather Beds has been kind enough to give us a track by track rundown of the record. Set for release this Friday 27 October on Montreal-based label Moderna Records, Blooming is a dreamy alt-folk venture written and recorded when the songwriter was living in Canada. Following his debut LP in 2015, The Skeletal System, Blooming is mixed and co-produced by Stephen Shannon (Adrian Crowley, Strands) and is a dreamy, multi-layered a that evokes the likes of The Antlers and Mutual Benefit‘s Love’s Crushing Diamond in its ambient folk atmosphere, but owes just as much to the hypnotic, minimal compositions of Steve Reich and to the…

  • Video Premiere: Malojian – Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home

    October 24, 2017 - By 

    Released last week, Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home by Stephen Scullion’s Malojian is a record firmly rooted in place and visual memory. With the seeds of this latest outing being sown when BFI and Northern Ireland screen approached Scullion about playing a show at a coastal location with coastal-themed visuals from their archive to be used as a backdrop, Scullion soon took to the idea of recording some new material to go alongside those visuals. Teaming up with long-time collaborator, Belfast filmmaker and photographer Colm Laverty, the videos for LYWCYH’s lead singles ‘Some New Bones‘ and ‘Ambulance Song‘ presented symbiotic visual narratives that…

  • Premiere: Bear Worship – Frequency

    October 20, 2017 - By 

    Back in June we were very pleased to premiere one of our favourite Irish albums of the year, WAS by Dublin’s Karl Knuttel AKA Bear Worship. A release we called “a prismatic traipse of melodically rich, compositionally ambitious alt-pop” the album peaked on various tracks, not least new single ‘Frequency’. Backed by b-side ‘Post Geographical Orientalism – a beautifully woven, Grandaddy-esque effort – the single is a layered, synth-washed gem that sees Knuttel’s beatific vocal take centre-stage. We’re all over this, and you should be, too. Frequency/Post Geographical Orientalism by Bear Worship

  • EP Premiere: Ana Gog – Wake

    September 22, 2017 - By 

    Having formed while studying at NUI Maynooth, Dublin five-piece Ana Gog have been on a winding and wonderful journey over the last eleven years. The long-awaited follow-up to 2014 EP Resemblance, Wake marks a significant step in the band’s carefully-crafted aesthetic, with songs exploring themes of loss, inertia and rebirth. Recorded live at K9 and Arad Studios, it’s a candid, harmony-driven release in which the band’s collective talents interweave across four songs, from the gossamer-like sway of opener ‘Better Than Silence’ to the reflective, understated folk-pop of ‘Roze’s Kitchen (Wake)’. Upping the ante on all their previous output to date, there’s an almost voyeuristic intimacy to the…

  • Premiere: Carriages – Hardest Mile

    September 21, 2017 - By 

    Dublin duo Harry Bookless and Aaron Page AKA Carriages are an act that we’ve followed closely over the last few years. Spearheading an experimental folk aesthetic that comprises nature, open spaces and facets of the modern world, their music masterfully blurs the lines between the external world and internal processes, as well as electronic textures and organic sounds. Doubling up as the debut release on Homebeat Presents (an imprint we’re very excited about looking ahead to next year and beyond), the pair’s forthcoming new EP Movement is a five-track masterstroke melding Bookless’ found sound electronic atmospherics and elemental production with the inimitable soulful and…