Tag Archives: Ireland

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Wastefellow – Wonder

Here’s what you may need to know…

1. Diolmhain Ingram Roche is the name and face behind Wastefellow, an experimental electronic project that draws from a wide array of Ingram Roche’s influences, from Tim Hecker to Sunn O))).

2. Another from the Little L Records stable, debut EP Amazed A-Maze is available for free download from the label’s Bandcamp. It’s a conceptual piece, drawing on deja vu and ennui, equating real life’s loops with his own sonic ones.

3. The label also has a frankly ridiculous sale on, with its entire discography to date (over a hundred releases) in a digital bundle for a little over six quid.

4.  The video for lead-off single Wonder comes from 21-year-old director Conor Donoghue, who’s taken the whole glitch/digital artefacting phenomenon to the streets of Dublin.

5. Wastefellow’s next appearance is at LIFE Festival, with a DJ set as part of Dublin promoters Welcome’s contribution to proceedings. 27-29 May, for those what wants it.

6. Our top newshounds were, as of press time, unable to confirm if this was the inspiration for Ingram Roche’s nom-de-guerre.

Verdict: Glitchy, blissed-out, yet somewhat unsettling visuals accompany glitchy, blissed-out yet somewhat unsettling electronics.

Wastefellow

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At it’s most fundamental, it’s not a migrant crisis, its’ not a refugee crisis – this is first and foremost a human crisis.

The terms ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’ become weighted with connotations and they have too often have become terms that we use to almost distance ourselves from the humanity of the situation and that is desperation of men, women and children taking a risk-laden journey to try to escape the horrors of terror for survival.

I mean, at it’s very most fundamental, it’s about survival. And in our own DNA we understand that because we have a history, be it in the mid-19th century, but we are actually the survivors of that and it’s in our DNA and it’s part of the reason why I think we understand it more than most.

Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy speaking this afternoon.

Previously: ‘A Beautiful Thing To Do’

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aboveDat – Addicted ft. Christiana Underwood

What you may need to know…

01. Comprised of legendary Cork DJ Stevie G and Ian Ring (one half of much-fancied electronic-pop duo Young Wonder), aboveDat have this week released debut single Addicted.

02. Releasing via Stevie’s own Soul Jamz label, Addicted is available for download via iTunes from May 6th.

03. Featuring vocals from Leeside-based songstress and regular Stevie collaborator Christiana Underwood, the tune is an admitted ’80s throwback, all strident synths. It’s streaming in the widget above.

04. The duo has DJ appearances coming up throughout 2016, stay tuned to their social media for more.

Verdict: Groovy, summery stuff from a soulful supergroup.

aboveDat

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Lynched – playing the BBC Folk Awards tonight at the Royal Albert Hall

1. Dublin traditional/folk four-piece Lynched are the antithesis of safe, diddly-aye stagnation in the genre, commenting fearlessly on austerity, social issues, trad tropes and modern Irish identity.

2. Having existed in various guises for over a decade, Lynched as we know them today came together when the Lynch brothers met bandmates Cormac and Radie at various trad sessions around Dublin around 2012, and began arranging songs the duo had been working on for the prior few years, as well as some lesser-known traditional pieces.

3. Streaming above is Cold Old Fire, the title track from their second album, recorded by Danny Diamond of Slow Moving Clouds in Merrion Street’s Irish Traditional Music Archive in 2014.

4. This was the tune that helped get them kicked off RTÉ Radio on Culture Night a few years back, when showrunners attempted to steer their set away from the recession ballad (how’s about that recovery!) before removing them from proceedings. Nevermind, though: they wound up on Jools Holland after.

5. Tonight, they’ll be a world away from upsetting the official narrative, representing themselves and performing at the BBC Folk Awards, live at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Streaming tonight on BBC iPlayer, because why should public-service broadcasters provide “niche-interest” television or anything, it’s only what they’re funded to do, like.

6. Fight!

Verdict: Alongside The Gloaming, as well as the likes of Daithí, Moxie, Slow Moving Clouds and others, Lynched are not trad’s future: they’re the genre’s present. Passionate and progressive while retaining a world-weary authenticity.

Lynched

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Daithí ft. Sinéad White – Love’s On Top

What you may need to know…

1. Fiddle player and producer Daithí branches out more firmly with new EP Tribes, released this past February, in pursuit of sounds “not just inspired by traditional music, but by the culture, the scenery and atmosphere of the west of Ireland“.

2. Mentored by Young Wonder man Ian Ring, and cutting his teeth by fusing electronica with traditional music, he notched up supports for The XX, Santigold, and DJ Shadow before unveiling 2013 debut album In Flight.

3. Streaming above is Galway city-inspired leadoff track Love’s On Top, a prime example of the artist’s new direction, featuring Dublin singer-songwriter Sinéad White.

4. The next appearance of Daithí’s live improv show is at Whelan’s in Dublin, on Thursday May 12th. A late show, kickoff at 11.30, tickets €10.

Verdict: A further departure away from lingering influences and into a wider frame of reference, all the while exploring themes and sounds of his native West.

Daithí

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Le Galaxie – playing around the country this weekend

What you may need to know…

1. Dublin’s Le Galaxie bring unashamed, unabashed dancey, indie, ’80s-y synthpop to the fore, and have done so while becoming one of the country’s best live bands, when not dabbling in DJing under the moniker.

2. Having done the rounds previously as alt-rockers 66e, the four-piece regrouped in 2008, quickly garnering a following around the country and making their way around the world, from headlining Body & Soul, Sea Sessions and Castlepalooza, to SXSW and the Secret Garden Party. This summer sees them take on London’s Lovebox fest and Fiberfib fest in Benicassim, Spain.

3. 2011 saw them release debut album Laserdisc Nights II to wild applause from Irish music media, followed by 2012’s Fade 2 Forever EP.

4. Streaming above is the video for Love System, a live favourite and a tune that’s been tapped as a leadoff for two releases now, featuring on Fade 2 Forever before assuming its final, sleazily sax-laden form on Universal-released second album Le Club with this Feel Good Lost-directed visual accompaniment.

5. Their next excursion is for the May bank hollier – Friday sees them hit Waterford’s Central Arts, before heading out to the Wild West: the reopened and reawesomised Connolly’s of Leap happening this Saturday night. Sunday sees them play Dingle’s Féile na Bealtaine fest.

Verdict: The soundtrack to any neon, futuristic cinemascape you can imagine, from cool long-shot cities, to weepy end-credit belters, melted down and poured onto the tumult and movement of a packed dancefloor.

Le Galaxie

google

Yes.

Because Google drinks everyone‘s milkshake.

…The IAB’s report confirmed the continued dominance of Google in the digital advertising market, with only Facebook coming anywhere close.

Paid search revenues of €176 million in 2015 can be read as a proxy for Google’s share of the market, says Wolfgang Digital chief executive Alan Coleman.

This implies that the tech giant is earning 52 cents in every €1 spent on digital advertising in Ireland.

There you go now.

Irish digital publishers go native to get the ad revenue (Laura Slattery, Irish Times)

Pic: Irish Times

Meanwhile…

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This afternoon.

At the #PRPACon16

Thanks Graeme Kelly

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People being deported from Greece to Turkey by Frontex officials on April 4

Further to President Michael D Higgins’ speech on Monday in which he was critical of Europe’s response to refugees and migrants who are continuing to travel to Europe…

A petition calling on the next Irish government to demand an end to the EU/Turkey deal states:

Since early March, the EU­-Turkey Deal has been implemented against refugees and migrants. This deal designates Turkey as a safe third country, something it patently is not. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 16 people, including three children, were killed by border guards as they crossed into Turkey this year.

Amnesty International has reported on such killings, predominantly of Syrian refugees, since 2013. Not alone this, but Amnesty has also documented that Turkish authorities have been expelling groups of around 100 Syrian men, women and children to Syria almost daily since mid­- January.

This mass expulsion of people to a war zone is illegal under Turkish, EU and international law. The registration process in Turkey is also deeply flawed and conditions in the camps there are often unsafe and present multiple health hazards.

…The EU must recognise that people will continue to flee war, danger and precarity, and that these measures are just driving them to make ever more dangerous journeys. Thousands of children have disappeared in Europe, almost 6,000 refugee children and minors were reported missing in Germany last year.

European Union estimates that at least 10,000 child refugees had disappeared after arriving in the continent were “very likely to be underestimated”, according to a senior official at Unicef. Children and vulnerable adults are being preyed on by traffickers and criminals.

The amount of money spent on policing and militarising this crisis could help to resettle the people in need of asylum, this is clearly not a financial issue.

We are witnessing the greatest displacement of people since the Second World War and this time we can see it unfold on our TV screens and computers. The response of the EU is shameful, inhumane and wrong.

Will the next generation look back on this time and wonder how it happened, how we let it happen?

Ireland has responsibilities to these people as it plays a role in their displacement due to the use of Shannon Airport by the US military.

The wars that refugees are fleeing from resulted from invasions, occupations and deliberate aggravation of pre­-existing tensions by the US military that we have been supporting at Shannon for the last 15 years.

Ireland also has a proud history of humanitarian activity, let us take a stand now to do the right thing, to play a positive and decent part in this crisis.

Call on your TDs to demand the suspension of the EU­/Turkey Deal and for Ireland to accept more refugees. The resilience, courage, solidarity and community they manage to create despite these terrible circumstances could immeasurably enrich our societies.

Let’s be on the right side of history this time. Demand the human rights of migrants are upheld and that there is safe passage for all.

Anyone who wishes can sign the petition – which will be sent to the signee’s local TDs – here

Previously: ‘Is Our Response To Be Defined By Barbed Wire, Tear Gas And Rubber Bullets?

One Love

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Young Phantom – playing Connolly’s of Leap on Saturday

What you may need to know…

1. Young Phantom is the alter-ego of Cork-based Mark Mavambu. Growing up around a variety of music and pop-culture reference points, he’s parlayed their influence into a worldly-wise, cool and collected extension of his own personality.

2. After garnering attention as part of Tralee collective ApocalypsE, Mavambu has since set about creating a body of work encompassing hip-hop, spoken-word poetry, literature (his debut novel is currently in the writing), and fashion (as modelled in the pic above).

3. Streaming in its entirety at the link above is his first full-length, September. Though not his début proper (that’s due later this year), it’s a look at his and his collaborators’ fusion of hip-hop, electronic and ambient that underlies his stream-of-consciousness oratory.

4. Next appearing in Connolly’s of Leap this Saturday, as part of Word Up Collective’s second show at the venue, along with AikJ and Katie Laffan. 9pm, tenner door tax.

Verdict: One of the most exciting artists to emerge in Irish DIY/independent music in the last few years.

Young Phantom (YP)