• Watch: Post Punk Podge & The Technohippies feat. TPM – Hard Man

    September 22, 2020 - By 

    If there’s a scene in Ireland right now that best embodies the power of a diverse, unified voice for disseminating positive change, then it’s without a doubt the hip-hop community. An all-star pairing of independent acts, Limerick’s Post Punk Podge & The Technohippies have paired with Dundalk counterparts TPM to give toxic masculinity the acerbic skewering it needs in a collaboration that more than delivers on its ear-watering potential. Podge, no stranger to exploring personal and societal issues without filter or pontification, tells us: “it’s a comedic look at the nature of being a ‘hardman’, and how those who portray machoism in a very direct way are often masking their own vulnerability.…

  • Watch: SORBET – Birth (My First Day)

    September 16, 2020 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his debut solo EP, Life Variations this Friday, producer/songwriter/vocalist – and bandleader with Robocobra Quartet – Chris Ryan, AKA SORBET has lifted the cloche on the video for opening track ‘Birth (My First Day)’, which conjures the all-too-real sensation of impostor syndrome. Directed by Dominic Curran with AR motion graphics by Fabiano Benetton, the piece is a magic-realism expression of the singular, otherworldly feeling of the writing alone through his period of home-studio isolation. The seed of Life Variations grew from meditations upon two piano chords to which Ryan was repeatedly and profoundly drawn. Each of its three tracks takes this notion and explores cyclical threads and progression through key stages…

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • Video Premiere: Shrug Life – Last Gasp Of Summer

    July 24, 2020 - By 

    A timely arrival to cushion the blow of a festival-free summer, perennial TTA favourites Shrug Life are back with the video for new single ‘Last Gasp of Summer’. The track is taken from Shrug Life’s excellent, Daniel Fox-produced second LP Maybe You’re The Punchline which came out in April, available on 12″ vinyl through Bandcamp. Typical of their vision of a DEVO-meets-Thin Lizzy world, it’s a razor-sharp incision into minutia of the make some noise Irish experience, and festival fatigue that starts to set in as one’s twenties edges closer to the finishing line, without ever straying into ‘yells at cloud’ territory. Filmed partly at Arcadian Field Festival 2019, and featuring…

  • Video Premiere: Proper Micro NV – So Much To Give & Live For

    July 21, 2020 - By 

    Back in May, Limerick experimental electronic artist Rory Hall aka Proper Micro NV delivered hands down one of his strongest efforts to date. Taken from his forthcoming new album – a released in which Hall says he has set to  “push the boundaries a little bit” – ‘So Much To Give & Live For’ was warped and propulsive in all the right places. Today, we’re pleased to present a first look at the track’s accompanying seven-minute-long video. Speaking about the video, Hall said, “When considering the visual aspect of this new collection of tracks, I definitely wanted to go a little bit…

  • Video Premiere: Shifting – The Bland Leading the Bland

    July 21, 2020 - By 

    A month ahead of the release of what will surely be one of Ireland’s essential punk records of 2020, Shifting have just shared with us the video for ‘The Bland Leading the Bland’. An ideal introduction to the trio, who formed in 2016, and include members of No Spill Blood & Hands Up Who Wants To Die, amongst other noisemakers par excellence. The video a sub-ninety second microcosm of their repetitious, yet spontaneous dissonance, and squalid, darkly comic worldview, conjuring everything  from Unwound to Death Grips. The second in a series of videos to accompany their debut LP, it chronicles the time Matt ‘Uncle Dad’ Hedigan…

  • Video Premiere: Vivid Dreamer – This Is Not Living

    July 9, 2020 - By 

    Something you may have missed amidst the maelstrom of new releases last Bandcamp Friday was the surprise announcement of Vivid Dreamer, a collaborative project between two of Belfast’s synth-pop creators par excellence. Today, they’re lifting the cloche on second single ‘This Is Not Living’, ahead of the release of their eponymous debut album this Sunday, July 12. Both as producers and songwriters – with the likes of Oppenheimer, Beauty Sleep, Malibu Shark Attack, Wonder Villains, amongst others – Rocky O’Reilly & Ryan McGroarty been directly or indirectly integral in the sound of no shortage of Northern Ireland’s most essential listening across the last 15-odd years. Vivid Dreamer…