Tag Archives: Ireland

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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.

The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock

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Clerk 5 – Ennis rapper appearing live in Cork

What you may need to know…

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.

Clerk5

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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.

Nylon Primate

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Consternation has broken out in the Irish literary community with news breaking last night of Dublin independent publishing house Liberties Press instituting a €100 reading fee for authors’ manuscripts.

Liberties boss Seán O’Keeffe plays it off as covering costs and maintaining standards in this piece in the Irish Times.

“They are, of course, free not to send material our way. However, we have a hard-earned reputation as an innovative and successful publisher, and we believe that in a few years, this will be standard practice among publishers.

We receive hundreds of unsolicited submissions every year, and if this policy results in the number declining, that will be no bad thing.

We hope it will encourage authors to think carefully before submitting material to us, and to value the work we do.”

Irish lit Twitter is, of course, apoplectic. Writer and founder of Gorse.ie, Susan Tomaselli has been vocal since the story broke last night.

Writer Thomas Morris, currently of Faber Books, has his carefully-measured thoughts on the matter:

FIGHT!

Publisher takes Liberties (Irish Times)

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LUX – release new single Blank Page

What you may need to know…

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.

Lux

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Hilary Woods – playing Cork on Sunday

What you may need to know…

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.

Hilary Woods

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SOLAR BEARS – announce breakup and final single

What you may need to know…

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.

Solar Bears

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Dr. Strangely Strange – the return of legendary folk freaks

What you may need to know…

01. Started in 1967, folk experimentalists Dr. Strangely Strange were among the tenants of legendary Dublin rock lodgings The Orphanage, the same circle of people that produced Phil Lynott and Gary Moore among others.

02. Signing with Joe Boyd, producer/manager for the Incredible String Band, the band released debut LP Kip of the Serenes via Island Records in 1969, and the following year, recruited Moore for follow-up record Heavy Petting. The band disbanded in 1971 after a European tour, and have since reunited on a number of occasions inbetween other work in the arts, including for third LP Alternative Medicine in 1997.

03. Streaming above is one of the band’s calling cards, Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal, from the band’s first full-length.

04. The band plays its first gig in Cork city in over four decades this Sunday at the Kino, as part of IndieCork festival. Tickets €12, including a screening of a short documentary on the band filmed in 2007 before the performance.

VERDICT: One of the bands that helped set the scene for all manner of alternative music and experimentation in this country.

Dr. Strangely Strange

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SAND – second album for post-rock solo project

What you may need to know…

01. Keen observers of post-rock/instrumental ongoings may recall North Atlantic Oscillation, an Irish/English/Scottish outfit based in Edinburgh, releasing thru KScope, that came in for serious critical acclaim in the early part of the decade.

02. They’re fronted by Dublin/Limrock man Sam Healy, whose solo project SAND surfaced with a self-titled full-length in 2013, taking NAO’s soundscaping in a more introspective direction.

03. Streaming above is Seldom-Used Furniture, taken from SAND’s newly-released sophomore effort, A Sleeper, Just Awake.

04. The album is available now on CD and digital. Meanwhile, fans of Healy’s mothership will be happy to learn that a compilation of the band’s tunes is also up for pre-order at present via the band’s site.

VERDICT: Arriving at a mad intersection of post-rock, prog, psychedelia and taking on inflections of jazz, SAND plays with the various boundaries and lines between them all, to glorious effect.

SAND

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Enemies – announce split and details of final long-player

What you may need to know…

01. Last time we checked in with Wicklow math/pop quartet Enemies, they’d put out single Play Fire and were gearing up for the festivals.

02. Unfortunately, the band announced this week that they’ll be winding up operations at the end of the year, calling it a day after the completion and release of their final album.

03. Streaming above is itsallwaves, the second single from the album, entitled Valuables. Releases on digital, CD, vinyl and cassette on December 9th via Topshelf Records.

04. Their farewell show will be their biggest ever, when they play Vicar St. in Dublin on December 18.

VERDICT: Another sad loss to Irish music in recent times, albeit a band that leaves a rich and varied body of art behind them, and arguably one of the cornerstones on which Ireland’s math/post-rock scene was built.

Enemies

Photo: Niall O’Kelly