Tag Archives: folk

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A Lilac Declinelo-fi dream-folk

What you may need to know…

01. Visual artist Cecilia Danell takes the letters of her name and rearranges them into A Lilac Decline, a pseudonym for her dream-pop-inflected folk.

02. Striking out solo after stints with Cubs and Loner Deluxe, the Galway-resident Swede veers between the aforementioned and barebones composition with the implements and objects around her at the time.

03. Streaming above is her do-it-yourself video for single A Fine Day at Last, the first single from her album The Mountain Rages, available for pre-order from Rusted Rail.

04. Performing live next at Rusted Rail’s double-album launch for herself and Phantom Dog Beneath the Moon (more in this column tomorrow) at the Roisín Dubh in Galway on the 22nd.

Thoughts: Heartening, rootsy folk with traces of shoegazing and DIY ingenue throughout.

A Lilac Decline

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Rory NellisBelfast solo folkishness

What you may need to know…

01. When not garnering loving glances from the Irish music press, Belfast singer-songwriter Rory Nellis is also the frontman of Belfast indie lads Seven Summits.

02. Having debuted formally with 2014 extended-player The Moon, Nellis’ solo run kicked off in earnest in 2015 with crowdfunded long-player Ready For You Now.

03. Streaming above is Nellis’ new single Casual Discrimination, an earthy riposte to the hardening of empathy in the current climate. Also available for free download.

04. It’s taken from upcoming solo record There Are Enough Songs in the World, releasing in November of this year.

Thoughts: A grand, uke-flecked piece of indie-friendly folk pop that sets the tone nicely for Nellis’ next long-player.

Rory Nellis

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Dowth – folktronica from Dublin

What you may need to know…

01. Describing themselves as ‘mythical folk’, there’s more than a little modernity to Dublin duo Dowth.

02. This comes as no surprise to eagle-eared listeners: producer Tim Ording is better known as Exile Eye, one-half of trad-inflected hip-hop duo Melodica Deathship, while fiddler John Kelleher makes noise in outfits like Rats’ Blood, Burnchurch and GRIT.

03. Streaming above is their self-titled EP, released last November on digital download via Bandcamp and 12″ vinyl.

04. Doing a double-header of shows this weekend with psych/world beats man T-Woc. Friday night sees them play Jigsaw in Dublin with support from Catscars, while on Saturday, they head to Cork’s Kino theatre, with local support from Underling.

Thoughts: Their blurbs and self-descriptions deal in brevity, boiling their sound down to one word: ‘epics’. It’s hard to argue with that assessment – there’s ambition aplenty evident throughout these songs.

Dowth

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Brigid Mae Powerethereal Irish folk dreaminess

What you may need to know…

01. Over gentle waves of textures and reverberations comes the voice of singer/composer and visual artist Brigid Mae Power.

02. Having existed on the fringes of Irish folk for a number of years, she cut her teeth on her first full-length, I Told You The Truth, recorded in St. Nicholas’ Church in Galway. Leaving Ireland and heading to Oregon to record with American folk musician Peter Broderick in his studio proved to be a turning point.

03. Streaming above is the video for single I Left Myself For a While, from her self-titled “proper” debut record, available via Tompkins’ Square Records. Early solo work also available on her Bandcamp.

04. Headlining Quarter Block Party festival, on the weekend February 3rd-5th in Cork City Centre. More info here.

Thoughts: Some lovely moments amid the melancholy, resonating with subtle drone, and the atmosphere of the studio.

Brigid Mae Power

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SillkString-laden alt-folk from Cork

What you may need to know…

01. Sillk are a Leeside three-piece, and while at their heart a folk band, exhibit noirish/chamber-pop tendencies in places, due mainly to a dense undercarriage of cello and violin in their tunes.

02. The band’s debut E.P. Time is a Clock, recorded by Elastic Sleep/African Fiction man Chris Somers, releases this week on CD and digital download.

03. Streaming above is the video new single Switchblades Don’t Sleep, taken from the extended-player, directed by Eadaoin O’Donoghue and shot by Enrique Carcinero.

04. Launching tomorrow night at the Village Hall venue on Patrick’s Quay, Cork at 8.30. More info here.

Thoughts: A dichotomy of light-hearted play and heavy subject matter, balanced, bearing a wide, irreverent grin.

Sillk

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2016 has has been a pivotal year for Irish music.

sheet music editor Mike McGrath Bryan writes:

This year has been the strongest in recent memory for Irish music, managing so despite the dissolutions of a great many leading outfits in the community in times of yore, among them this year Fight Like Apes, Enemies and Funeral Suits.

In the eight months your writer has been doing daily explainers on Irish independent music, there’s never been a morning where we’ve been without content, a story to tell, something that’s exciting to put in post and press ‘publish’ on.

What a lot of us figured would be a passing golden era a few years back has become the foundation for something far more sustained – without so much as a look from daytime radio or television, and with minimal coverage from our country’s mainstream media (all this despite good people in each, fighting the good fight, might I add).

Ireland’s music scene is easily the equal of any other offering, anywhere in the world, and arguably, pound-for-pound, the best in terms of quality of releases.

With that being said, let’s dig in to the list.

The divisively-named Top Ten Irish Records of 2016 does come with a caveat, though – joint winners (both ranked #1, with the #2 spot vacated, for the pedants among you).

It’s been that good of a year. Enjoy.

Continue reading →

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Malojian – Belfast singer-songwriter

What you may need to know…

01. Malojian is the brainchild of Belfast man Stevie Scullion, aided on occasion by collaborators Mike Mormecha and Joe McGurgan.

02. New album This Is Nowhere finds Scullion ruminating on middle-life, from parenthood, to marriage to grief, and was overseen by none other than Steve Albini, he of Big Black/Shellac, and the DIY recording gatekeeper behind some of Nirvana, the Breeders, and the Pixies’ finest work.

03. Streaming above is the video for I’ll Be Alright, taken from the record. Video directed by Colm Laverty.

04. Catch him on the road at Whelan’s in Dublin on the 26th, DeBarra’s in Clonakilty on the 27th, Coughlan’s in Cork on the 4th of December, and on the 9th at the Washerwoman in Ballina. Full tour details and more dates here.

Verdict: Scullion’s dichotomy of wringing sunny tunes from sober situations has seemingly met its match in Albini’s barebones recording work.

Malojian

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We Cut Corners – video for new single Of Whatever

01. Indie/alt/folk duo We Cut Corners have been busy this year, putting the finishing touches on third album The Cadences of Others.

02. Hefty shoes to fill: previous long-players Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards and Think Nothing were both Choice Prize nominees.

03. Streaming above is the video for Of Whatever, directed by Jon Hozier-Byrne. Evoking the sense of panic that 2016 has neatly been enveloped by, it features model Megan O’Malley sleeping through life/drowning in a shallow bed. Fun for the whole family.

04. Catch them tomorrow night in the Roisín Dubh in Galway, and on Saturday night in the Button Factory in Dubland.

Verdict: A lush, densely-arranged take on the band at their more usually considered bodes for a big-sounding LP.

We Cut Corners

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Ailbhe ReddyDublin folk/rock soloist

What you may need to know…

01. Folk-laden alternative drawn from personal experience is the order of the day for Dublin singer-songwriter Ailbhe Reddy.

02. Getting a start in 2014, she first drew attention from a wider audience after her tune Cover Me appeared across radio, while first single Flesh and Blood garnered good reviews and song-of-the-day features across the UK and Irish blogosphere.

03. Debut E.P. Hollowed Out Sea released this year, with production from Sacred Animals‘ Darragh Nolan. Streaming above is the video single Distrust.

04. Reddy is among the artists in the running for the fan vote to co-headline Other Voices and appear on the RTÉ TV show of the same name, alongside Jafaris, Meltybrains?, BARQ and Basciville. Vote here.

Verdict: Reddy clearly has the knack for big songwriting, but it’s tempered with a certain elegance that makes it all the more intriguing.

Ailbhe Reddy

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Katie Kimambient folk from the Déise

What you may need to know…

01. The return of Waterford singer/composer Katie Sullivan, a.k.a. Katie Kim, has been two years in the making, and comes four years after previous full-length Cover and Flood.

02. Debuting in 2008 with full-length Twelve, recorded after a virus wiped fifty existing finished songs from Sullivan’s PC, she quickly made a name for sparse, lo-fi alt-tinged folk in PJ Harvey vein. 2012’s Cover and Flood continued to flesh out her vision.

03. Streaming above is Sullivan’s newly-released long-player SALT. Available now on vinyl from independent record retailers around the country, and digitally via Bandcamp and Spotify.

04. Having launched the record at The Unitarian in Dublin a few days ago, upcoming launch dates remain on October 31st at The Loft in Reyjavik (for our Iceland-based readers), and December 3rd at St. Patrick’s Gateway in Waterford.

Verdict: The realisation of the sound and vision that’s undoubtedly been brewing in Sullivan’s work over all this time. A haunting, reverb-laden missive.

Katie Kim