• Premiere: Naoise Roo – Almost Perfect (Live)

    May 6, 2022 - By 

    Last month, Naoise Roo unveiled an expanded version of her sublime 2015 debut album Lilith. Featuring five bonus tracks remixed by John Agnello and Jerome Froese, it brought into sharp focus the Dublin artist’s enduring singular talents as a vocalist and songwriter. Having just been announced to play this year’s Latitude Festival, all while making her mark Stateside, Naoise looks set for a seismic few months. Ahead of that, we’re pleased to present a first look at a new live video of inward-peering Lilith highlight ‘Almost Perfect’. One part of a longer live video due for release later in the year, the performance…

  • Premiere: I Am The Main Character – GOLD (I Die at the End)

    April 19, 2022 - By 

    “Man is the microcosm: I am my world.” Wittgenstein knew the craic when he penned these words back in 1916. A few moons later, Dublin’s premier (only?) “solipsism-core” band I Am The Main Character have taken the essence of the inward-peering avowal in question to its natural conclusion on ‘GOLD (I Die At The End)’. Smudging the lines between thrash-hop, mutant pop, trap and post-punk (no, not that kind) it’s a masterfully mangled effort from the supergroup of sorts. Influenced by the likes of Gilla Band, Lightning Bolt, and The Knife, they’re made up of Dublin DJ/producer Ben McKenna (Ben Bix, Meltybrains?, Sim Simma), Jay McNamara (TTA…

  • Video Premiere: Wild Rocket – Formless Abyss

    March 3, 2022 - By 

    Few bands do obliterating quite as convincingly as Wild Rocket. On releases such as 2017’s Disassociation Mechanics, the Dublin space rock band wed masterful repetition with a slew of bludgeoning riffs to lethal effect. The title track from the band’s imminent new release, ‘Formless Abyss’ takes that unfuckwithable ratio and ups the ante a hundredfold. Across the perfect eternity of ten minutes, the band unshackle one almighty beast that’s equal parts trouncing and – as it crests, a bokeh shot of face-searing sludge – supremely acid-soaked. Big words, yes, but this is a big fucking song. Watch Rian Trench’s aptly tripped-out visuals for the track below. Featuring contributions by Colin Mifsud, Tommy O’Sullivan…

  • Video Premiere: wornoc – Deep Within

    December 15, 2021 - By 

    Via singles including ‘Signs’ and ‘Rising Tides’, Dublin-based artist Conor Walsh aka wornoc has carved out a niche in forward-pushing alternative-electronic sounds from these shores. At the heart of his craft is a sensibility rooted in the push-and-pull of post-rock – all gossamer phrases one moment and surging release the next – inspired by the likes of God Is An Astronaut, Olafur Arnolds and Bonobo. New single ‘Deep Within’ is a distilation of just that. Inspired by a memory of his time spent in Norway on the island of Stord, it’s a halcyon trip, building sparse synth and guitar motifs before a swelling finale. Accompanying the…

  • Video Premiere: Fixity – [Do The] Bits and Pieces

    December 2, 2021 - By 

    One-man psych-jazz engine room Dan Walsh, aka Fixity, has just released a video for new single ‘[Do The] Bits And Pieces’ – no relation – taken from the latest LP, FIXITY7. The song itself, Walsh tells us, is “inspired by evil surf riffs, big band music, wrong notes and the hectic feeling of keeping up with the world while it turns, ‘Bits And Pieces’ is a direct expression of making things happen and living.” The video – directed by The Altered Hours’ Cathal MacGabhan – is a wonderful foil, manipulating time and expectation for the listener, mirroring the song as it at-turns burrows and upends the…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Video Premiere: Pretty Happy – Sea Sea Sea

    April 22, 2021 - By 

    Just a couple of months on from their hugely successful ‘Salami’, Cork art-punk trio Pretty Happy are back with the video for new single ‘Sea Sea Sea’. While the dischordant rattles of NYC no-wave-inspired guitar drive things song along, tension is cranked between shrieked vocals of bassist Arann Blake – recalling Black Francis and David Byrne at their most effervescent – and a spoken word passage from guitarist/vocalist Abbey Blake. Positively owning its Irishness, ‘Sea Sea Sea’ is an at-times dadaist exploration of the nation’s chronic self-loathing and perpetual issues of queer identity and gender stereotyping. Its video – debuted in November’s Spilt Milk Festival – was…

  • Premiere: Strange Boy – Waiting

    April 14, 2021 - By 

    A self-proclaimed “1000-year-old poet channelling through the body of a young man from Limerick,” Strange Boy (FKA Jonen Dekay) is well and truly a rapper on a mission. Having paired up with Rusangano Family and Naive Ted on his acclaimed 2016 mixtape, Passionate Example, he has since signed with Berlin-based label Welcome To The New World and collaborated with PX Music, as well as Hazey Haze, Citrus Fresh, GavinDaVinci, among others. It’s a forward-moving trajectory that’s been racing head long in one direction: the release of his debut album, HOLY / UNHOLY, in the summer. Working alongside producer Enda Gallery, it’s certain to lay bare Strange Boy’s singular nuance…