• Premiere: Boyfrens – Almost Live in Tengu

    October 21, 2021 - By 

    Dublin electro-pop artist Jack Hevey ventured out as Boyfrens just before the world began to shut down early last year. As a result – and no thanks to a whole heap of governmental incompetence as of late – he has yet had a chance to air his material to a real-world audience. With that reality firmly in mind, Hevey teamed up with Owen Costello of Substance Media to produce a 20-minute live performance at Dublin venue Tengu in early summer this year. Performing to an incredibly intimate audience of 10, the set was brought to life via director of photography Sean…

  • Premiere: Eoin Dolan – Amulet of Love

    September 24, 2021 - By 

    For as long as we can remember, Galway’s Eoin Dolan has occupied a singular place in the Irish music community. A songwriter that goes beyond the everyday – an artist who ekes out real majesty from the uncanny – his craft is at once deeply considered and remarkably his own. Next month, Dolan unveils his fourth full-length album, Mirror Liver. Bearing the imprint of artists as mottled as Vashti Bunyan, Super Furry Animals and Donovan, it’s that album that delves into everything from love and mysticism, to day to day reflections of people who lived through the evolutionary times of…

  • Video Premiere: Ódu – Saturday

    September 16, 2021 - By 

    With ‘Men Like Me‘, Bray-based singer-songwriter Ódu sealed her status as one of the country’s most promising alt-pop propositions. Produced by Asta Kalapa – who has worked with everyone from Daithí to Ailbhe Reddy) new single ‘Saturday’ goes one better. Filtering the throwback disco production of its predecessor, it’s a wonderfully heart-stung, deftly crafted gem from the fast-rising artist. Speaking about the track, which traces the small, everyday things you come to miss after the breakdown of a relationship, Ódú said: “Saturday is a song about reaching a stage in your life where your self-worth is tied to the things…

  • Premiere: Loner Deluxe – Track 1 Side 1

    September 1, 2021 - By 

    We’re pleased to offer a first look at the new video by Galway’s Loner Deluxe. Comprising Rusted Rail records main man Keith Wallace, A Lilac Decline aka Cecilia Danell and So Cow’s Brian Kelly, the trio’s recent LP, Field Recordings, is hands down one of our favourite Irish albums of the year thus far. A highlight, opener ‘Track 1 Side 1′ is a cyclical lo-fi feat, featuring scorched lead guitar in the vein of Pixies’ Joey Santiago. Have a first look at the track’s accompanying visuals, courtesy of tinyEPICS, below.

  • Premiere: No Oil Paintings – What Good Does It Do

    August 20, 2021 - By 

    Off the back of a storming set at Stendhal Festival last weekend, acclaimed Belfast Americana/alt-folk act quartet No Oil Paintings have returned strongest single to date. Capturing the Chris Kelly-fronted foursome at their most emphatic and earworming, ‘What Good Does It Do’ was self-recorded at Half Bap Recording Studios, mixed by Ben McAuley and mastered by Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio Mastering in New York. Speaking about the track, which is taken from the band’s forthcoming debut album, Kelly said: “The song is a personal admission of the futility of one’s own anger and frustration. An enraged and impassioned plea for better temperament, delivered sonically…

  • Video Premiere: Invaderband – Handcuffed Man Shoots Himself

    July 15, 2021 - By 

    As the North’s premier – and most downright consistent – art-punk proposition, Invaderband have always delivered. Fronted by Adam Leonard, and featuring the likes of TTA favourite Chris McConaghy, AKA Our Krypton Son, the Derry quartet honour the lineage of (not to mention put their own twist on) post-punk more than any overhyped clan of boys from the Pale ever could. You need not look much further than the band’s new single ‘Handcuffed Man Shoots Himself’. Conjuring everyone from Gang of Four and Swell Maps, to Stranglers and early Blur, it’s a stellar anti-anthem on police brutality that distils Invaderband’s equal parts…

  • Premiere: Strange Boy feat. Hazey Haze – Hahaha

    June 17, 2021 - By 

    Back in April, we had the pleasure of premiering one of the Irish songs of the year so far: ‘Waiting’ by the fast-rising Jonen Dekay aka Strange Boy. Two months on, the Limerick rapper is on the cusp of releasing his highly-anticipated debut album, Holy/Unholy. Dropping next Friday, June 25th, the 10-track album features collaborations with the likes of Clannad’s Moya Brennan (‘Beginnings’) and Seán McNally Kelly (‘Forgotten’). Elsewhere is an outright peak from the album, ‘Hahaha’. A collaboration with fellow Limerick rapper Hazey Haze, it’s a masterfully believable effort that marries marrying skeletal trad with bars of pure-cut personal truth. Have a…

  • Premiere: Jake Wallace – Empyrean

    June 3, 2021 - By 

    As one-fifth of Belfast doom merchants Elder Druid, Jake Wallace knows a thing or two about the power of heft. Today, he offers a new vantage point to view his craft Taken from his debut solo EP, Lacuna – which is officially released via Black Tragick Records tomorrow – two-minute instrumental ‘Empyrean’ is a masterfully restrained effort that shines a light on the many hues of Wallace’s full-spectrum sound, Speaking about the EP, Wallace said, ‘The project came about as a result of lockdown and a few rainy afternoons in Belfast. I had never recorded any acoustic music at all, although I had…

  • Video Premiere: Skinner – Beer Me, Jim

    June 4, 2021 - By 

    Dublin musician and producer Aaron Corcoran aka Skinner has swiftly carved out a niche for himself in the Irish indie scene. Today, he underscores that promise with Gunge, a five-track EP melding slouching punk with a lo-fi jazz bent. A highlight is closer ‘Beer Me, Jim’. Written from the “perspective of a young Irish person in lieu of finding a path in a country facing high rents, growing social inequality and a future that is worse off than the generations that have come before,” it’s a sax-laced and decidedly earworming effort from the 23-year-old. Zoning in on the escapist ritualism…

  • Premiere: Niall McDowell – Do You Think I’m Pretty?

    May 18, 2021 - By 

    In the summer of 2019, Belfast artist Niall McDowell marked his arrival via ‘Valentine’, a candid and homespun five-minute statement of intent. Following a string of equally promising releases including ‘You Have My Heart’, new single ‘Do You Think I’m Pretty?’ is a vivid snapshot of an artist swiftly on the rise. A self-proclaimed “chaotic ode to the moments within a relationship that are too specific to call out, in fear of seeming too much,” the song – his first song to be played with a full band – is a wonderfully wistful that bears the imprint of artists including…