Tag Archives: Ireland

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Mankyy – Clare beatmaker gets in with the first new release of the year

What you may need to know…

01. Mankyy is the beatmaking pseudonym of Clareman Daithí MacCrúitin. At a tender eighteen years of age, he’s already been up and down the country, sharing stages with This Side Up and the Cuttin’ Heads Collective.

02. Debut extended-player Character Development guest appearances from a litany of Irish hip-hop leaders, including Limerick trio Same D4ence, fellow prodigy Jonen Dekay, and Spekulativ Fiktion.

03. The E.P. is available for streaming and download in the widget above.

04. Technically the first release of the year in Ireland, the E.P. dropped in the early hours of New Year’s Day, via Limrock beatgods The Unscene.

Thoughts: Some absolutely scorching guest bars are the cherry on top of a well-developed, dense and eclectic collection of beats.

Mankyy

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When Your Country Is A Weapon – Erin Fornorff

America-born, Dublin-based spoken word artist Erin Fornoff writes:

A poem about Christmas, and the election, and the birth of Jesus, and mayonnaise in holiday ads. It’s only got a shelf-life of another week so I’d love for people to see it.

Meanwhile…

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Ireland is…

Aidan Strangeman writes:

On December 5, I put up a message asking the members of popular Irish Facebook forum, OMGWACA, to contribute lines to a poem called “Ireland Is…” (based on a poem by Colm Keegan). Out of hundreds of suggestions, I collated the most popular lines and posted the poem on the forum….

The result proved to be popular and it was suggested that we should make a video with various members saying selected lines for charitable cause, and given the references to the house and home, Focus Ireland was the obvious choice.

Donate here

Produced by Bob Murphy
Music by Hugh Rodgers

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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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Switzerland – Dublin indie-pop via Popical Island

What you may need to know…

01. Something of a Dublin lo-fi supergroup are four-piece Switzerland.

02. Nostalgia-tinged pop is the name of the game, from members of Drunken Boat, Hello Moon, Land Lovers and the Paddy Hanna Band.

03. Streaming above is the band’s new single, Starting Out, a taster of debut album Long Gone, releasing via Dublin pop collective Popical Island in January.

04. The album launch happens at Whelan’s on the 27th. Stay tuned to the band’s social media for more info.

Verdict: Ramshackle indie of the variety that is staple to Popical Island and its attendant bockety-pop remit. Fun for fans of Teenage Fanclub and the like.

Switzerland

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Run the Jukes – collaborative beats via The Unscene

What you may need to know…

01. Galway beatmaker and high-ranking Street Fighter competitor Jimmy Penguin teams up with Mikey B-Side, a.k.a Michael Fallon of Cork’s Cuttin’ Heads Collective. By their powers combined, they are Run the Jukes.

02. The Kralbum is the result of their collaborative labours, dropped by surprise last night via Limerick weirdo music propagation magnates The Unscene.

03. The twelve-minute, one-track mix can be streamed above, and downloaded for free from the project’s Bandcamp.

04. Other than telling us that apparently “Jukes reign supreme over nearly everyone“, there is literally zero other information on this particular project. This was an intentional move, according to the Unscene’s crack PR team.

Verdict: More handy, weirdy, noisy beats from the sweet spot of Irish hip-hop.

Run the Jukes

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Mongoose – jazz/folk Dublanders curating special gig line-ups

What you may need to know…

01. Dublin four-piece Mongoose bring together a wide pool of influences to create folk with an alternative tinge.

02. Coming together in 2012, the release of the band’s self-titled debut album last year follows a clutch of self-released singles and extended-players.

03. Streaming above is Doing Things Wrong, a single released earlier this year in solidarity with the Repeal the Eighth campaigns.

04. They’ve recently been curating their own line-ups of musical and spoken word artists, in a series of gigs called Winter Longing. Next up: Levis’ of Ballydehob on Saturday night, with Anna Mieke Bishop and more in support.

Verdict: Solid and spirited jazz/folk with a keen melodic sensibility.

Mongoose

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Cruiser – fuzziness and pop from Limrock

What you may need to know…

01. Limerick four-piece Cruiser make minor-key pop that falls somewhere inbetween shoegaze’s fuzziness, and pop-punk’s enthusiasm.

02. Coming together in 2014, the band settled on a solid line-up in 2015, and have since been a solid presence on Limerick gig bills, sharing stages with The Altered Hours, Windings and Rats on Rafts among others.

03. Streaming above is the HOT 4U E.P., released in May of this year. Available for free/name-your-price download along with the rest of their tunes on Bandcamp, including a non-loathsome take on Fairytale of New York. In fairness, etc.

04. Catch them next at Dolan’s in Limerick on Stephens’ Night, as part of I’ll Be Home for Christmas, a big, feck-off wedge of Limrock for holiday returnees, also including Windings, FONDA and Slow Riot.

Verdict: Immediately likeable, earnest music, slathered in fuzz and feedback, with a notable (and much-needed) lack of notions.

Cruiser

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ooSe – Experimental/’dream-hop’ from Cork

What you may need to know…

01. Absorbing elements of experimental, funk, hip-hop, house and math-rock into itself like some sort of beast are Cork folk ooSe.

02. Somehow encompassing all of this into a three-piece, the band first emerged in August of last year, releasing three-track E.P. Ephem.

03. Streaming above is an excerpt from the band’s show at the Triskel Arts Centre, this past September, a taster of their depth in the live field.

04. Gigging next on the 23rd of December, returning to the Triskel, with support from Donal Dineen on the decks, and visuals from Isaac Stillwell.

Verdict: A layered, complex, bewitching, yet seemingly fully-polished proposition. A hidden gem.

ooSe

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The Orange Kyte – madness escaping Dublanders via Canada

What you may need to know…

01. Dublin-rooted psychedelia/fuzz/pop, emerging nowadays via their home in Vancouver, British Columbia.

02. Led by vocalist/guitarist Stevie Moonboots, a solo recording project took a transcontinental move to be fleshed out into a functioning band, but the last year has seen exponential growth, including monthly single releases throughout 2016, and consistent gigging around their new home territory.

03. Streaming above is the band’s last single of the year, Fizzy Orange, available for streaming and download at their Bandcamp.

04. Home for the holidays, and gigging around Ireland post-Xmas, including the 28th, alongside the Urges at Dublin’s Grand Social for the Retro Revival Indie Club; the 29th, at the Kino in Cork with The Sunshine Factory, Oh Boland! and more in support; and the 30th in Derry’s Sandinos Bar, with local boys Asimo’s Understudy.

Verdict: A madcap rush through a whole musical idiom, from minor-key shoegazing and psychedelic walls of sound to retro-pop keys and four-to-the-floor indie-rock stomping. A treat for those what wants it.

The Orange Kyte

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Demeter – black metal from Cork veterans

What you may need to know…

01. Bleak yet subtly atmospheric black metal is the modus operandi for Cork four-piece Demeter.

02. Comprised of veterans of Irish metal and hardcore, including members of Kawtiks, Soothsayer, Dominus, Slugbait, Hope is Noise and one-man project Molde, the band have more than enough miles behind them.

03. Streaming above is the band’s first demo, Blight, available now for free download from their Bandcamp.

04. Catch them tonight in Cork at Fredz, supporting for Soothsayer, and on the 25th of February at the Urban Assault all-dayer, confirmed for An Spailpín Fánach on Cork’s North Mall.

Verdict: Raw and unremittant black metal with a quietly melodic sensibility, alternating between barebones riffing and blast-laden noise.

Demeter