• Premiere: Ten Past Seven – Turf War

    October 15, 2020 - By 

    Since 2002, Kerry trio Ten Past Seven have peddled a singular brand of instrumentalism, striking an equal parts nuanced and face-melting midpoint between alternative, math rock and self-proclaimed “bog prog”. On November 27th, the band – comprising Rory O’Brien on guitar, Matt Shallow on bass and drummer Ger Mangan – will release their second full-length LP, Long Live the Bogwalrus, via pre-eminent Irish indie imprint Art for Blind Records. Recorded by two-thirds of TTA favourites Percolator, John “Spud” Murphy and Ian Chestnutt, at Guerilla Studios in Dublin, the album features guest vocals by Landless, fiddle by Lankum’s Cormac MacDiarmada and various other notable guest…

  • Premiere: nimf – Space

    October 1, 2020 - By 

    Kaleidoscopic Wicklow sugar-pop performance artist nimf has returned with new single ‘Space’. Its production is as synapse-firing it is personal, a bricolage that effortlessly conjures the 3D candied earfloss dreamscapes nimf speaks of when discussing its themes of imagination, and “the beautiful worlds within our own minds”, which open up “endless possibilities when overwhelmed by the day-to-day” on when left to our own devices. Certainly, the young singer-songwriter’s singles thus far are not just accomplished as elements of a bigger body of pop artistry, but of an already fully-realised sound world. Listen to ‘Space’: nimf · Space

  • Premiere: IN-IS feat. Haula – Broken Ones (Ryan Vail Remix)

    September 17, 2020 - By 

    Last year’s NI Music Prize winner Ryan Vail teamed up with BAFTA-nominated film & TV composer Sheridan Tongue, AKA IN-IS to bring us a remix of the latter’s ‘Broken Ones feat. Haula’. Another characteristically panoramic blend of balmy atmospheric washes and lush synth arpeggios, Vail continues to deliver in abundance as a collaborator, remixing with the same verve and creativity as can be found across his body of solo compositional work. Of the remix, Sheridan told us: “Ryan Vail is a producer I have admired for many years. Coming from the world of film and television soundtracks, I find his ability to create an expansiveness and…

  • Premiere: Kate Nicholson – Freedom Calls

    September 11, 2020 - By 

    It’s safe to say that solidarity and hope are more vital than ever. It’s something artists across the globe have been expressing over the last few months, not least in the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others. Kate Nicholson is one such artist. Hailing from Draperstown in Co. Derry, and currently based in the North Coast, her debut single ‘Freedom Calls’ is a rallying cry written in the days following the death of Floyd back in May. Drawing inspiration the likes of The Cranberries, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, the track was recorded and producer by Michael Mormecha in the…

  • Video Premiere: Ordnance Survey – Moving Statues

    September 7, 2020 - By 

    Over two decades into producing music under various monikers, most notably Somadrone, Neil O’Connor is rightly regarded as a giant in Irish electronic music. Last year, in the guise of Ordnance Survey, he revealed yet another string to his bow. Accompanied by the likes of Sean McErlaine, Linda Buckley, and Tortoise’s John McEntire, Relative Phase was a delicately emphatic release that wielded nuance and restraint. Next month, O’Connor will unveil its follow-up. Backed by an array of musicians from traditional and contemporary music, Ampere is set for release on October 1st. Lead single ‘Moving Statues’ is a sublime snapshot of what to expect. Featuring Dónal Lunny…

  • Video Premiere: Gnarkats – Volume Up

    September 7, 2020 - By 

    Four days after lockdown hit way back in March, Belfast alt-rock threesome Gnarkats unveiled one of their strongest efforts to date, ‘Dreamers‘. Last week, the band went one further with the fuzzed-out indie-pop idealism of ‘Volume Up’. Today, we’re pleased to present a first look at the single’s homemade visuals. Featuring footage of the band zig-zagging across London on a pilgrimage to see The Strokes at All Points East last year, it distils the forward-moving spirit of both the song and Gnarkats as one of Northern Ireland’s most forward-moving alternative acts. Revisit our Track Record with the band here. Photo by Niall Fegan

  • Video Premiere: Meljoann – Business Card

    August 18, 2020 - By 

    Hands down one of the country’s most idiosyncratic solo artists, Meljoann is a musical mind positively resistant to second-guessing. Taken from her forthcoming “anti-capitalised themed” album HR, recently singles ‘Company Retreat’ and ‘O Supervisor’ presented an artist whose sonic vision is matched by a perfectly unpigeonholeable visual body of work. New single ‘Business Card’ goes one further. Accompanied by easily one of our favourite Irish videos of the year thus far, it’s a deft and masterfully disorientating effort from an artist very much on the rise.

  • Premiere: Fixity – FIXITY 6

    August 14, 2020 - By 

    The music of Fixity, aka Irish multi-instrumentalist Dan Walsh, has always been perfectly thicket-like – a dense, sprawling mesh in which to get lost, happily stuck even. Since mid-2016, it’s been a conduit for all kinds of probing, forward-moving forays into God-knows-where. Spanning live EPs and first-rate LPs including last year’s No Man Can Tell – a release TTA’s Ryan O’Neill called “a brilliantly loose, shapeshifting record that is quite difficult to compare to anything else” – Walsh and co-conspirators including tenor saxophonist Emil Nerstrand have consistently delivered carefully-crafted, often masterfully mind-melting music. New release FIXITY 6 doesn’t deviate from this tried-and-test…

  • Video Premiere: Feather Beds – Fragile

    August 5, 2020 - By 

    Masterfully blurring the lines between dream-pop, shoegaze, electronica, ambient, and experimentalism, London-based Dublin artist Michael Orange aka Feather Beds is easily one of the island’s most idiosyncratic musical minds. Premiered this morning on Mary Anne Hobbs’ BBC 6 Music show, his new single ‘Fragile’ is a first-rate first taste for newcomers. Doubling up as the lead single from his forthcoming EP, Fragile/Temper, it marries carefully-crafted soundscapes with a rush of 8bit blips to create something that, despite nodding to the likes of Ariel Pink and The Cure, is unmistakably his. Just as inviting is Orange’s homespun visuals for the single, which you can…

  • Premiere: Dutch Schultz – Start Me

    July 30, 2020 - By 

    In March 2016, we hosted a show that would double up as the last we’d heard from Belfast alt-rock quartet Dutch Schultz in over four years. Blessedly, out of the blue, last month came a signal. Via trouncing new single, ‘Brutus’, the Willy Mundell-fronted foursome were back just when we needed them the most. Ahead of release tomorrow, we’re pleased to present the first look and listen to its follow-up, ‘Start Me’. The second single to be taken from the band’s forthcoming, Russ Russell-produced album, Friends Like Brutus, it’s a typically earworming effort tackling, in their worlds, “consumerism amid the pressures of…