Tag Archives: Ireland

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Grim Pickinz – troublesome tunes from Dublin and the UK

01. Kynz-Illa from Dublin and DateOne from Peterborough are the constituent parts of Amsterdam-based project GRIM PICKINZ.

02. December of 2014 saw the duo release The Troublesome Sound E.P. independently, and they’ve since been regulars both around Amsterdam’s venues and on guest appearances for Irish rappers and producers.

03. The remastered edition of their extended-player is available for streaming in the widget above, and for download from their newly-setup Bandcamp. Kynz-Illa is also streaming his instrumentals (and licensing them to interested musical parties) from his own new Bandcamp.

04. Comes to Broadsheet offices Karl’s den via the recommendation of Limerick beat dons The Unscene.

Thoughts: Heavy-hitting boom-bap for those partial to same, topped off by deft Dub-accented wordplay.

GRIM PICKINZ

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GUILTY OPTICS – “Downstroke wizardry”

What you may need to know…

01. Last time we checked in with GUILTY OPTICS (their all-caps, not your writer’s), they’d just released their first single in a while, ahead of completing work on their debut album.

02. While we await more news/noise on this topic, the band are currently planning more national touring in 2017.

03. Streaming above is And So It Goes, the follow-up to last year’s streaming single The Kayapo Ghosts, premiered last week at The Thin Air after a prolonged wait, judging by the given upload date on the band’s Soundcloud.

04. Headlining a gig at the Tivoli Backstage tomorrow night at 8pm. We covered the other two veteran bands on the bill this week, also – Ten Past Seven and Elk supporting.

Thoughts: Punky, angular noises, delivered with earnestness and aplomb. Grand.

GUILTY OPTICS

Elk

Elk – pop/hardcore/punk from Cork

What you may need to know…

01. Returning from a prolonged hiatus are Leeside live faves of the mid-late aughts, pop/heft outfit Elk.

02. Releasing debut album We Should Start Our Own Gang in early 2009, the lads went quiet shortly thereafter, re-emerging live periodically, including for the launch of a split 7″ single with Crayonsmith in 2011. It’s been a busy few years, with the boys keeping the fires burning in, offhand, No Spill Blood, Hands Up Who Wants to Die, All Tvvins and Guilty Optics.

03. That long-player of theirs is streaming above, and available for free download via Bandcamp.

04. Elk return on Saturday night at Tivoli Backstage in Dublin, supporting GUILTY OPTICS alongside Ten Past Seven. Ridiculous lineup.

Thoughts: Straightforward pop lurches into dreamy sounds, lurches back out into heft and distortion. Something for everyone, and a welcome return.

Elk

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Ten Past Seven – instrumental freakery from Kerry

What you may need to know…

01. At long last, an excuse to talk about Ten Past Seven. That genre of theirs in full: “Kinky Kerry Sex Metal Trad Scat Gael Core Bog Prog”. Das’ right.

02. Assembling in the early 2000s, the band released debut long-player Shutupyourface in 2006, via the venerable Out on a Limb Records, followed by a split 7″ with Los Langeros that was launched atop Carrantuohill, a string of EPs and intermittent live activity.

03. Streaming above is most recent extended-player Black Box Recordings, crowdfunded and recorded in Black Box Studios in France in 2011.

04. Playing Dublin’s Tivoli Theatre on the 28th, supporting Guilty Optics alongside fellow veterans Elk.

Thoughts: Loathe as your writer is to revert to old tropes, ye olde “if you have to ask” applies to Ten Past Seven. Listening yields more noisy insanity than we have room for in this column.

Ten Past Seven

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Horse – Cork sludge/hardcore four-piece

What you may need to know…

01. Last we heard of Cork-based hardcore outfit Horse, they were getting riled up for Lodgefest II, at the now-defunct Pine Lodge venue, late last year.

02. In the months since, the band has released a split 12″ single alongside fellow Leeside rabble-rousers Bisect. We featured that band’s side of the record not too long ago.

03. Their half of it is streaming in the widget above and available for download as a stand-alone release.

04. Next live excursion is another bus out of town, this time to Connolly’s of Leap, on February 24th, for the Leaping-ton show. Hope is Noise and Horse are joined by new lads The Liminals and, in their first Cork show in years, post-metallers Rest.

Thoughts: Having firmly settled into a new line-up, Horse’s weighty, downtuned hardcore is newly focused, and somehow even more abrasive.

Horse

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Gavin Doyle – Tipperary beatmaker and MC

What you may need to know…

01. Behind the mic, he’s Gavin DaVinci, but under his own name, Tipp man Gavin Doyle is fairly handy at putting a beat together.

02. At nineteen years old, he’s only after getting kicked off properly in the last year, with a string of single releases.

03. Streaming above is Doyle’s new single Dead Rabbits ‘n’ Humans, a collaboration with fellow Tipp wordsmith Mychee.

04. The pair have also set up Broken Jaw Records, a net-label for their beats and instrumentals. Warning: banner pic is probably NSFW.

Thoughts: As a rapper, there’s inflections of Irish accent and well-tested grime patter, but it’s his rapidly improving beatmaking that’s the story here.

Gavin Doyle

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I Have a Tribe – crooning, low-key indie from Dublin

What you may need to know…

01. Patrick O’Laoghaire is the man behind I Have a Tribe, releasing the project’s debut album Beneath a Yellow Moon last year via Groenland Records.

02. Taken from the same LP is new single After We Meet, newly re-recorded with the addition of backing vocals from Mary-Kate Geraghty, TAFKA MayKay of Fight Like Apes.

03. Streaming above is the video for the single, with visuals by Arbutus Yarns/This Ain’t No Disco man Myles O’Reilly.

04. He’ll be playing Whelan’s in Dublin on Friday March 3rd, in support of the new release.

Thoughts: Textured and interesting, definitely feeling the benefit of a sonic revamp, yet comforting and reassuring.

I Have a Tribe

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The Redneck Manifesto – back catalogue reissues for Dublin post-rockers

What you may need to know…

01. Last we checked in with Dublin instrumentalists The Redneck Manifesto, they’d taken to stage at Clonakilty Guitar Fest ahead of getting in shape for a new record.

02. While there’s no further announcement on that front as of yet, the band have released their complete discography to date on streaming services as of this week, as announced through a post (and with a special playlist) on Nialler9.

03. Streaming above is the title track from 2005 long-player I Am Brazil. The band’s music is available now across Apple Music/iTunes, Spotify, Google Music and Tidal.

04. Live dates are happening next month. February 15th and 16th at Whelan’s, the latter being sold out; the 17th at the Roisín Dubh in Galway, and the 18th, at Dolan’s in Limerick.

Thoughts: A distinguished body of work that helped set the precedent for a generation of instrumental music from this island. Well worth the revisit ahead of new tunes.

The Redneck Manifesto

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Nomadic Rituals – gravestone-heavy doom metal from Belfast

What you may need to know…

01. Purveyors of downtrodden, doomy, slow-crawling filth are Belfast trio Nomadic Rituals.

02. Second full-length album Marking the Day releases next month, on handmade CD (with art-cards) and digital download. An ambitious piece, the LP is a concept record taking on the birth, life and death of the Cosmos, as well as the purpose of humanity. Perfect for summer barbecues.

03. The album is streaming in its entirety in the widget above, and available for digital and physical pre-order via their Bandcamp.

04. The record launches on the day of release, February 17th, with a gig at the Voodoo in Belfast, with support from Cork’s Soothsayer, War Iron, and MAW.

Thoughts: An hour-long odyssey whose heaviness and heft is matched by its scale.

Nomadic Rituals