The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock – Folk group reprise and release large-scale pieces
What you may need to know…
01. Marrying noises from the Irish folk canon with experimental rock sounds, The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock take their name from a poem about a haunted canal lock.
02. They’ve released two full-lengths to date: an eponymous self-titled album in 2008, and The Brutal Here and Now, in 2012, via Japanese label Transduction Records.
03. Streaming above is the video for the first movement of recently-toured set Lockout. A large-scale piece, requiring a guitar orchestra, and based on the 1913 strike and lockout, Lockout will be reprised with a performance at the Cork Opera House on October 30th, as part of the Green Room stage.
04. Follow-up piece The Bullet in the Brick, marking the hundredth anniversary of the Rising as it draws to a close, is released on 12″ on November 25th. Preorders available now. They’ll also be performing at the No Idle Day weekender in Dublin next week.
VERDICT: Expanding their sonics to accomodate the weight and expectation of their subject matter and its retelling, The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock have risen to the challenge of history in fine fashion.
01. Hailing from Ennis, Co. Clare is Clerk 5, one of a host of hip-hop people to have emerged from the Clare/Limerick area to form a good part of the basis of the current hip-hop community in Ireland.
02. A quiet man online, he’s last been seen collaborating with Limerick beats don Naive Ted (and his partner Deviant), on E.P. Authority Figures.
03. The E.P. is streaming and available for free download, above, and even comes with the instrumentals if it takes your fancy.
04. On Tuesday week, he’ll be making a live appearance at the Brú Bar with fellow Ted collaborator Spekulativ Fiktion, with Cork cutman JusMe on the decks.
Verdict: Rapid-fire with words, and possessed of an intensity of cadence that adds to the tension in his verbiage.
Cork-based folk singer Malcolm Urquhart, a.k.a The Lost Gecko, is currently working with kids in Direct Provision on music workshops, while working with NASC.
He’s looking to open up the conversation on education in Direct Provision, and see if anyone can help.
Nylon Primate – instrumentals from Sons Phonetic beatman
What you may need to know…
01. Waterford man Rabiah Zaruq, a.k.a. Mook, beatmaker and one-sixth of the Sons Phonetic collective, is branching out solo, as Nylon Primate.
02. Heading into instrumentals for the majority of the new record, Zaruq extends his reach from backdrops to soundscaping, playing equally with ambience and beats.
03. Streaming above is the video for leadoff tune Matador, featuring Irish hip-hop legend/Scary Éire man RíRá on wordsmithery duties.
04. The Mancala E.P. releases next Monday online, via Limerick beats house Unscene Music.
Verdict: At the blissed-out intersection of psychedelia, beats and ambient noises, there’s much to be discovered among Nylon Primate’s layers of sound.
01. On the outer reaches of the Cork scene (Youghal, to be precise) lies electronic duo LUX.
02. Comprised of producer Claire Regan (f.k.a. Spill and Ambience) and vocalist Colin Lee, the duo specialise in synthpop that marries the eighties’ more downbeat sensibilities with ambient & classical leanings.
03. Slowly developing a body of work over the last three years, the duo began with a pair of singles, Warmsad and Vital Signs, before setting about limited live engagements around Cork city and county and releasing follow-up single Solace last year.
04. Streaming above is new single Blank Page. A video is enroute and another new tune on the way shortly, according to the band.
Verdict: Informed by the past without resorting to nostalgia, and possessed of a lingering melancholia, Lux’s music moves in ebbs and flows.
Festival season around the country’s lower reaches continues.
Cork, already thrown down with jazz, folk and early music, adds another recurring fest to its list with the second bi-annual Friary Cork Festival, running October 20-24 at the Friary bar on Shandon Street North Mall.
Music, food, alcohol, films and other shenanigans are a go throughout the festival in the newly-resurgent city-centre venue.
Sez Mike D’Arcy:
The festival is aimed at people who are appreciative of the wide range of art, music and the artisan skills of the local producers and aims to showcase some of the great facets of what makes Cork great to a wider audience; many of whom may have reached these shores in the last few years.
To highlight a few; On Saturday DJ Ian Richards will present a history of Cork music since the 1960’s until today including tracks by the likes of Microdisney, 5 Go Down to the Sea and The Frank and Walters. Alternatively we have DJ Ian Fiasco bringing Global Sounds in Cork, recognising the music of our multi-cultural city. We also have Jim X Comet reprising his fantastic Planet Funk club night from the much missed Half Moon Club, as well as hosting a lot of talented local musicians throughout the festival.
St. Patrick’s Distillery will bring their multi-award winning range and tell the story of how their artisan distillery came to be. Records and Relics will encourage you to try on and play with relics from the past in their interactive afternoon. Deja View screening club will showcase some of the best of Cork film makers with food by Cool Beans.
01. Hilary Woods has decisively stepped out of her previous body of work as bassist of JJ72, and into her own element.
02. Debut E.P. Night set the scene, moving from Woods’ old band’s jangles and into darker, more shoegazey territory when premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival. This June saw the release of second extended-player Heartbox, which moves things further forward. Among her collaborators this time around are The Jimmy Cake’s Paul G. Smyth, who manned some of a vast array of synths and handled the artwork on the record.
03. Heartbox is streaming and available for download in the widget above.
04. Woods plays Cork this Sunday night, at the Triskel Arts Centre’s Gulpd Cafe. Tickets are €8 from PLUGD Records, with drone/improv man HAMES in on support.
Verdict: Heartbox is a lush, expansive work that packs a lot into three tracks, and it’ll be interesting to see how all the various layers and elements translate to a live show in an intimate venue.
Walking the line between layered, ambient passages and big, alternative-pop hookplay is Cork-born/London-based singer Lyra.
Beginning at the age of six, she spent her childhood performing in church and at family gatherings, learning the bodhrán in the process, which plays a part in her current live show.
Now based in London, and working with management company Tileyard, she’s finished her debut EP. W.I.L.D., available now across all digital platforms.
To mark the occasion, she’s about to play her first ever Irish shows under the Lyra pseudonym.The ‘sheet’s Mike McGrath-Bryan talks with Lyra ahead of the Cork leg of the show tonight.
Mike McGrath-Bryan: “Your story starts at a young age in Mount Oval, in Cork. Your sister picked up on your aptitude for tunes. How would you describe your musical upbringing?”
Lyra: “Me and my sister were inseparable when we were younger. I’ve always looked up to her and wanted to be exactly like her when I grew up. She has an amazing voice and I used to try and copy her! We would spend days on end making tapes in our bedroom and putting on concerts for anyone who would watch.”
Mike: “Provide us with some insight into your writing and recording process on a piece.”
Lyra: “Writing is very personal to me and I find writing about my life and experiences really therapeutic. I don’t really have a particular method of writing that I stick to – it changes from song to song! Some songs I write at home and then take those ideas to the studio and then some ideas just randomly come to in the studio. Recording the vocals takes a long time as I love layering harmonies and would spend forever and a day adding them if I could.”
Mike: “Your debut E.P. released this past July – how has it been received, how do you feel about it?”
Lyra: “I hope people like it! I’ve had some really lovely messages from people about it from all over the world which is amazing. I’m super proud of my E.P., it’s my first music-baby and I’m excited to have many more.”
Mike: “The artwork and aesthetic is fetching – go into it a little with us?”
Lyra: “Well, being from Ireland I have always been by the sea, it’s my favourite place to be. So an underwater photo shoot was an absolute must from the start. It was a lot of work to get it right but so much fun. Lots of holding my breath!”
Mike: “Nialler9 has already gotten well behind you, how is it to have that kind of support at this stage?”
Lyra: “It’s amazing! Nialler has been a dream, it was so nice to have such a great Irish blogger talk about my music, and I will always be grateful to him for backing me from the very start. I’ve always read the blog, so to be in it is wicked.”
Mike: “Based in London and being active there a lot of the time, do you keep in touch with the scene here at all? What do you make of it?”
Lyra: “I love home and being Irish is something I’m very proud of no matter where I am, so I do keep an ear to the ground to stay in touch as much as possible. I love seeing new Irish artists popping up and I know Ireland hasn’t got a shortage of fantastic singers – I was asked by a UK blog recently to write all about my top upcoming Irish acts – so it was nice to be able to intro the UK audience to more Irish acts that they mightn’t have heard of yet.”
Mike: “You have a hometown show in Cyprus Avenue, after playing Whelan’s in Dublin. What are your thoughts leading into it?”
Lyra: “I get weak at the knees when I think of it…. I am dead excited but I’m also nervous as a lot of my family and friends have never seen me perform before.”
Mike: “What next then, after these two dates?”
Lyra: “I have another announcement coming soon for some further shows… and then it’s studio time for me to finish some new tracks and get more music out there!”
Lyra plays Cyprus Avenue tonight. Kickoff at 8.30, €5 at the door. New E.P. W.I.L.D. is available now.
01. We seem to be at that time in a wave of music/artists where people are reorganising or going on to pastures new, and after Enemies and Starters‘ recent disbandings, comes news of the breakup of electronic duo Solar Bears.
02. Rian Trench and John Kowalski formed the duo in 2009, and across three albums explored electronica’s limits via sampling, synth, tape machine and acoustic instrumentation, veering between ambience and psychedelia.
03. Streaming above is the band’s farewell single, Across Yesteryear, available for free download from the band’s Soundcloud.
04. Speaking in Thump on their breakup, the band kept their statement succinct. “We have decided to call it a day after 8 years together… Thank you to everyone that listened and came to see us play. Major love to (labels) Planet Mu, Sunday Best and (agents) Littlebig for believing in us.”
VERDICT: A sombre parting note that perfectly summarises the band’s essence, bidding good tidings to the universe with a long, slow fade.
