• Stream: exmagician – Job Done

    January 8, 2016 - By 

    If there’s one Irish album we’re nigh on pant-wettingly excited for this year it’s Scan The Blue by Belfast’s exmagician. A titular (and slight member) shift from the embers of Cashier No. 9, the project has had us quietly agog since the release of their debut EP Kiss That Wealth Goodbye via Bella Union in November. A perfectly crafted, psych-laced alt-pop gem, the band’s new single ‘Job Done’ distils Danny Todd and James Smith’s prismatic mastery to four all-too-fleeting minutes. As you might have guessed, we’re big fans. WordPress code More options

  • Stream: Little Green Cars – The Song They Play Every Night

    January 7, 2016 - By 

    Laced with pathos in all the right places, ‘The Song They Play Every Night’ is the wonderful lead single from Dublin five-piece Little Green Cars‘ second album, Ephemera. Swooning, brittle and impossibly earnest, the track – driven by Stevie Appleby’s exquisite, whole-hearted delivered – taps into the all often unspoken world of loss and recovery. Top drawer. Ephemera will be released on March 11.

  • Stream: Villagers – Wichita Lineman

    January 4, 2016 - By 

    Taken from Where Have You Been All My Life? (a collection of re-imaginings set for release on Friday) Villagers are streaming their sublime cover of Glen Campbell’s stone-cold classic ‘Wichita Lineman’. Meeting and exceeding all expectations, it’s an expectedly heartfelt, full-band affair that pays tribute to the original in extraordinary fashion. Distilling five years and three albums of Villagers’ songwriting into “one flowing narrative” Where Have You Been All My Life was recorded in one day at London’s RAK Studio with Richard Woodcraft and Villagers live engineer Ber Quinn.

  • Album stream: Morning Veils – Her Kind

    December 29, 2015 - By 

    Tagged with the sole, supremely apt descriptor “experimental” on their Bandcamp page, Cork outfit Morning Veils have unveiled their debut album, Her Kind, a release that channels bedroom solipsism, backwashed thoughts and psychic corners in perfectly phantasmal fashion. Comprised of members including Elaine Howley of The Altered Hours and Roslyn Steer, the band’s brilliantly burrowing brand of forgotten folk unravels over thirteen tracks to inveigle and sedate with real, restrained purpose and cursive cool. Her Kind is launched at St. Lukes in Cork City tonight (Wednesday, December 30). Limited tickets available from Plugd Records and on the door at 8pm. Show starts at 8.15pm.…

  • Stream: Kowalski – The Kowalski Archives: 2007-2009

    December 30, 2015 - By 

    Having been quiet since the release of their long-awaited debut album, For The Love Of Letting Go, back in the Summer of 2013, London-based Bangor indie-pop quartet Kowalski have returned with The Kowalski Archives 2007-2009, a stellar fifteen-track digital release capturing various performances from their early days. As well as its release, the band revealed their reason for absence was due a serious illness within the band: “Hello you lovely folk! I’m sorry we have been very quiet over here in Kowalski land but we thought it was time to update you on what is going on. Unfortunately our bass player Tom has been very ill for…

  • Stream: Lie Ins – Love In The Arctic/Go Back To Billy

    December 15, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of the fifth annual Popical Island All-Dayer at Whelan’s on Saturday (more info right here), Dublin’s Lie Ins are streaming their forthcoming double A-side, ‘Love In The Artic/Go Back To Billy’. Respectively described as “a post-apocalyptic hoe-down” and a “pop tune about returning to past follies”, the lo-fi indie trio recorded their tracks straight to tape by the threesome’s new bassist Mark Chester at Popical Island hub The Pop Inn. Officially released on January 25, stream the tracks below.

  • Premiere: The Irish Youth Music Awards Volume 8

    December 4, 2015 - By 

    Back in April, we took part in the voting process of this year’s Irish Youth Music Awards at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium. A hugely encouraging, jam-packed day of genre-spanning music and performance from some of our country’s best budding talent, it fully reinforced the importance of grassroots educational programmes that extend a platform to homegrown artists in the making. Eight months on, we’re pleased to present a premiere of The IYMAs Volume 8, a five-track release featuring participating acts from Louth – Jake Mc Ardle, Kate Rogers and Bobby Bankole – the recipient region of this year’s IYMAs. The album also features a track from…

  • Stream: Paddy Hanna – Chocolate and Salt

    December 1, 2015 - By 

    To say Dublin’s Paddy Hanna is on a bit of a roll would be a towering understatement. Off the back of November’s sublime ‘Underprotected‘ – hands down one of our favourite Irish tracks of the year – and a string of Irish dates with Girl Band, he has unveiled the bobbing and brilliant mastery of ‘Chocolate and Salt’, the b-side to the aforementioned single. Described by Hanna as “an ode to self-doubt, a story of embracing worth, while mourning the loss of a sorrow which once defined you” it’s another solid, pathos-laden pop effort from the artist, summoning Summertime disconnection in perfectly restrained…

  • Premiere: Chris Hanna – B.K.I.T.B

    November 27, 2015 - By 

    Set to feature on Belfast electronic imprint Extended Play’s EP50: STATEMENT OF INTENT – out Monday, November 30 – we’re pleased to premiere ‘B.K.I.T.B’ by Belfast producer Chris Hanna. Standing for ‘Broken Knuckles In The Bunatee’, Hanna said of the track: “‘Broken Knuckles In The Bunatee’ is my nod to the room in the Queens University Student’s Union. It regularly hosts Belfast’s rowdiest nights. When things kick off in the place the low ceiling always takes the brunt of it and I wanted to make something as a tribute to that exact moment. They’ve happened so frequently now they’ve started repairing…

  • Stream: MMOTHS – Deu

    November 24, 2015 - By 

    Having long been one of the country’s most curious producers – an artist that has always felt right on the cusp of delivering something that little bit special – Jack Colleran AKA MMOTHS first grabbed our attention back in 2013 with his placating Diaries EP, a release full of restraint and cunning ambient power. Two years and a handful of impressive outings later, the Kildare artist has us smitten all over again with ‘Deu’, a warm, bewitching slice of electronica, taken from his forthcoming LP, Luneworks. Most definitely one for fans of Ulrich Schnauss, Baths and Boards of Canada, stream the track via…