Tag Archives: Cork

13537711_162364527512208_6592142271577384481_n

Nxstalgic_ – releases Motorola beat tape on Soft Boy Records

What you may need to know…

01. Decent (instrumental) Irish hip-hop from Leeside beatmaker Nxstalgic_.

02. Independently released an album and two EPs between August of last year and February, all available here.

03. Streaming above in its entirety is new beat tape Motorola, available for pay-what-you-want download.

04. Released via upstart Irish hip-hop collective Soft Boy Records, among them former Broadsheet featuree Kojaque, Matt Finnegan and Kean Kavanagh.

Verdict: Impossibly smooth, yet suitably gritty. Don’t sleep on it.

Nxstalgic_

13627191_278340495851365_4774441767563717050_n

Ghostking – released new EP

What you may need to know…

01. Oddball, noisy/reverby pop is the order of the day for Cork’s Matt Corrigan, operating under the pseudonym Ghostking.

02. Surfacing as a solo project from Cork’s diminutive but feverishly active all-ages music scene, Corrigan garnered local attention with a (since deleted) debut EP earlier this year.

03. Streaming above is new extended-player Journal of Public Affairs, available now for free download.

04. You know you’re onto something when an artist willingly labels themselves as “Post-Mortem”. In fairness.

Verdict: All manner of hyper-self-aware sarcasm, alongside a healthy disregard for anyone else’s opinion on same, married to some nicely barebones songwriting.

Ghostking

13422414_1241837019194900_8867066855934733871_o

ELLLL – new EP due soon on Art for Blind

What you may need to know…

01. Ellen King, aka ELLLL, specialises in a brooding, minimal, dark techno.

02. Emerging quietly from Cork’s noise and sound art scene, ELLLL’s work has taken a beatsier turn in recent years. A founder member of the GASH Collective, a platform for women in Irish electronica, she’s pictured above in the middle of her recent set for Boiler Room in Dublin, having also recently featured at Life and Open Ear festivals.

03. Streaming above is the video for recent single ROMANCE. Video compiled and edited by Louise Adelaide McKeown.

04. King’s debut EP is due for physical release by the end of the summer on Cork/Sligo/Leeds label Art for Blind Records. Catch her next at Bastardo Electrico’s next night at Cyprus Avenue in Cork, sharing a bill with Berlin electronic collective Killekill.

Verdict: A quiet but assured presence in Irish electronic music. Propulsive without sacrificing atmosphere or minimalism, the upcoming extended-play ought to be a treat.

ELLLL

0005698883_10

The Shaker Hymn – new single and album now on Spotify

What you may need to know…

01. Last we saw of this Cork four-piece, they’d released the vid for single Trophy Child and were preparing for their second full-length.

02. The album, Do You Think You’re Clever?, has since been released, and was accompanied by a spate of Irish gigs that culminated in an appearance at last week’s Body and Soul festival.

03. Streaming above is the band’s newest video clip, for single Another One of You. Projected visuals by Colm O’Herlihy.

04. Do You Think You’re Clever? is finally available on Spotify, for those who are so inclined.

Verdict: A more leisurely-paced number than previous selections, which plays very well to the band’s well-honed pop streak.

The Shaker Hymn

Screen Shot 2016-06-24 at 15.49.17

Last night.

In Cork city.

It was Bonna Night.

Paddy O’Shea, of Norries from Cork, writes:

These four confident kids on Kilmore Road, in Knocknaheeny, built their own fire and were proud as punch.

Meanwhile…

Screen Shot 2016-06-24 at 15.57.29

Screen Shot 2016-06-24 at 15.58.41

Paddy adds:

Residents of Glen Heights with their communal bonfire (top). They arranged their own wardens and controlled it. This was probably the biggest fire, hitting about 20 feet at its peak. Above are two residents of Knocknaheeny posing with a shoe they found to throw into the fire.

Bonna?

Thanks Paddy

a3948853507_10

 

What you may need to know

01. Decent Irish hip-hop with an avant-garde tinge from young, Cork-based producer SCOUNDRELL.

02. One of a multitude of projects emerging from one of an innovative and prolific group of young musicians/meme-peddlers in Cork City, SCOUNDRELL takes grime and hip-hop and puts them through some very odd filters.

03. Streaming above in its entirety is Black Box Renaissance, a collection of demos and other bits assembled from quick-and-dirty productions from the past few weeks.

04. Also available is the Lithic EP, a rather more concise exercise in darker electronics.

Verdict: A mad confab of low-key beats and experimentation, well worth the trip for anyone so inclined.

SCOUNDRELL

Photo 1 by Iza Szczutkowska 2014

Sky, Horse and Death – debut album released last week

What you may need to know…

01. Sky, Horse and Death is an outfit for Altered Hours guitarist Kevin Terry and collaborators’ sonic investigations into the paranormal.

02. Debut album Music for Karla Turner is a tribute to the late academic, author and (alleged) abductee.

03. Streaming above is the album in its entirety, available now online via KantCope records.

04. Cassettes also available, as with all KantCope releases, from their Bandcamp and instore at PLUGD Records.

Verdict: Intense stuff to say the least, but another reason to pay attention to Cork music’s fertile and wildly imaginative outer reaches at present.

Sky, Horse and Death

1

‘sup?

A cracked traffic light on the junction of Blarney Street and Shanakiel Road [Cork] is casting an eerie glow onto the face of Christ on the cross at the adjacent grotto.

Believed to have appeared on the weekend of Corpus Christi, the site has now attracted people to pray there after dark, when the light is most prominent.

‘Local man Terry’ said:

“The light crosses the road, goes up at a 45 degree angle. It starts out as a pin and then it gets bigger like a projector and shines up onto the cross. It picks out only the figure on the cross.”

God Giving Cork The Green Light? (Cork Evening Echo)

Pic Denis Scannel via Evening Echo

xhymUT4M

FIXITY – Cork percussionist leads sonic explorations

What you may need to know…

01. More improv from Leeside courtesy of drummer extraordinaire Dan Walsh and an assortment of collaborators.

02. He of The Great Balloon Race, Cork Improvised Music Club, jazz night Blue Note, and formerly of a million other bands and outfits, both as composer and session performer, of course.

03. Streaming above in its entirety is his new album Fixity, released on tape label KantCope.

04. Appearing last night as part of the label’s triple album launch at St. Luke’s in Cork, Fixity “represents the beginning of a project that will manifest itself in many ways”, according to Walsh himself.

Verdict: One of the country’s most prodigiously talented percussionists continues to explore his and his collaborators’ horizons.

Fixity