Having confirmed his arrival last summer with his stirring single ‘His Young’, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Eoghan O’Hagan AKA His New Atlas has returned with his strongest single effort to date, ‘Saints’. Accompanied by a video courtesy of Maverick Renegade, the song sees a heartfelt performance from O’Hagan merge with a impressively-layered, almost symphonic backdrop, resulting in four minutes of building and subtly beatific brilliance.
A mechanical, foreboding procession into tremulous reverb and possessed of foreboding, post-punk pace, GODHATESDISCO‘s new single ‘Incredible Technology’ walks a thin line between Krautrock restraint and post-punk alienation. Never will this be better represented than in the accompanying video, just released. A veritable option paralysis of found footage, rhetoric and stock film, all overlaid and bleeding into each other, it perfectly mirrors the song’s descent from signal to drained-out noise, a commentary on the prevalence of tech. GODHATESDISCO releases new LP ‘Great Radio’ on July 24th via Little Gem Records.
Cork songstress Niamh Murphy AKA Foxglove is one of those artists who just instantly commands a song from the moment her vocals enter into the music. Featuring a suitably phantasmal video by David Nelligan, the beautifully elegiac, chamber-pop tale that is ‘We’re No Armies’ is a perfect example of this seemingly effortless knack in action. Photo by Emma Jervis.
Set to play Body & Soul at the weekend, Dublin duo My Tribe Your Tribe really caught our attention back in February with the dreamy, subtly cascading alt-electro of ‘Only a Horizon’. Going several steps further, their new single, ‘Will To Survive’, was obviously written with those imminent summer festival sets in mind. Danceable in all the first places, it looks both inward and outward, evoking the vocals of Ben Gibbard, and a musical marriage between Caribou and early Arcade Fire. ‘Will To Survive’ – produced by James Darkin at Temple Lane Studio – will be officially released on November 6.
We’re not quite sure what it is but there’s mos definitely something about the sea that seems to inexplicably lure so many Irish musicians and their accompanying video directors. Of course, we’re not complaining – particularly if the video turns out to be anything as exquisite as the one for ‘Down By The Beeches’ by Dublin singer-songwiter Gavin Farrell AKA Atriums. An accompaniment of vast, powerful, wonderfully-paced force, directed by James Lawes of Bare Films, you can watch it via Vimeo below. Check out our Inbound piece on Atriums in the second issue of our physical magazine online here.
Hands down one of our favourite songs of the year, ‘Here In The Wild’ by the Ken Griffin-fronted August Wells has been brought to life with a superb, rather touching video courtesy of Sean Nagin. Summoning the pensive, reflective chamber pop of Richard Hawley and the gloriously elongated vocals of early Ian McCullough, the song was recently released via Cork’s FIFA Records. Speaking to our writer Eoin Murray last month, Griffin – previously of Dublin indie rock band Rollerskate Skinny – said, “I chatted with Eddie (Kiely) from the label and I found his attitude very refreshing, and he seemed to genuinely love the…
Far from sitting on the proverbial Marriage Equality fence, Dublin lo-fi trio Fierce Mild play a ridiculously endearing brand of lo-fi punk, inflected with little flourishes of danceable beats and a general sense of celebration. “Celebration of what,” you ask? “Equality, in all its forms” we reply. Watch the video for their single ‘Equal People’, taken from their debut EP, Yes N Yes N Yes, below.
The follow-up to the sublime ‘Communion Girls’, released back in February, Stevie Scullion AKA Malojian has unveiled the video for jaunty new single, ‘Bathtub Blues’. A brilliantly breezy effort, the video for the track features Scullion and his music-making cohorts Joe McGurgan and Mike Mormecha performing the track in a bathroom. We see what they did there. Malojian launch their new album, Southlands, at Belfast’s No Alibis on May 29 and 30. Buy tickets here and watch the video for ‘Bathtub Blues’ – directed by Tommy Keery – below.
One of Ireland’s most naturally gifted songsmiths, Rory Nellis‘ music betrays an increasingly tangible sense of conviction and candor. Where no lyric or phrase feels throwaway, no chord progression or melodic flourish seems kneejerk or unconsidered. This almost meditative attention to detail is something that has often set his music apart from many of his peers, something that’s more than evident on his forthcoming debut album, Ready For You Now. Recorded with Phil D’Alton of Master & Dog, the album – currently available to fund on Pledgemusic – features a cast of local musicians including Herb Magee (formerly of LaFaro, now of Goons), Pete…
A masterclass in woozy, nocturnal electro-pop, You Want The Night by Dublin three-piece Sleep Thieves is easily one of our favourite debut albums by an Irish band in… well, forever. A year on from its release, the Sorcha Brennan-fronted band have unveiled the video for its title (and arguably best track) ‘You Want The Night’ – and what a distance director Mike P. Nelson has gone to wonderfully, rather cinematically capture the song’s dark, marauding tangents.