Tag Archives: new Irish music

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Robocobra Quartet – jazzy hardcore from Belfast

What you may need to know…

01. Despite their designation as a quartet, sax-laden spoken-word hardcore outfit Robocobra Quartet call on any of fourteen members for their incendiary live excursions.

02. Having gigged on the regular since 2014, the collective have done the festival grind, including Electric Picnic and Brilliant Corners Jazz fest, as well as having released a limited lathe-cut 7″ via Smalltown America.

03. Streaming above is the band’s debut album in its entirety, Music for All Occasions, recorded in studios and venues around Belfast city.

04. Available now in various formats from their Bandcamp. Having finished the UK/NI swing of their album launch, more UK/IE dates are likely for next year.

Verdict: Dour, downtuned, swaggering post-hardcore as a framework for world-weary spoken word broadsides.

Robocobra Quartet

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Malojian – Belfast singer-songwriter

What you may need to know…

01. Malojian is the brainchild of Belfast man Stevie Scullion, aided on occasion by collaborators Mike Mormecha and Joe McGurgan.

02. New album This Is Nowhere finds Scullion ruminating on middle-life, from parenthood, to marriage to grief, and was overseen by none other than Steve Albini, he of Big Black/Shellac, and the DIY recording gatekeeper behind some of Nirvana, the Breeders, and the Pixies’ finest work.

03. Streaming above is the video for I’ll Be Alright, taken from the record. Video directed by Colm Laverty.

04. Catch him on the road at Whelan’s in Dublin on the 26th, DeBarra’s in Clonakilty on the 27th, Coughlan’s in Cork on the 4th of December, and on the 9th at the Washerwoman in Ballina. Full tour details and more dates here.

Verdict: Scullion’s dichotomy of wringing sunny tunes from sober situations has seemingly met its match in Albini’s barebones recording work.

Malojian

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This Side Up – Sligo hip-hop

What you may need to know…

01. Myster E, Shaol and DJ Noone are This Side Up, a Sligo hip-hop collective.

02. Emerging from a live rap cypher at a regular vinyl night of the same name, in the town’s McGarrigle’s pub, the trio have been quietly gaining momentum in Irish hip-hop the past few years.

03. Streaming above is the trio’s debut album, Full Fat, the follow up to last year’s 3075 EP. Featuring appearances from Spekulativ Fiktion, MC Muipéad and Verb T and Moreone.

04. Catch them tomorrow evening at Liquid Lounge in Cork for the Cuttin’ Heads Collective’s birthday, and on the 26th at the Grand Social in Dublin.

Verdict: A big, boisterous offering that not so much touches on, but lands a big elbow drop on, everything from mental health in Ireland, to world politics.

This Side Up

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We Cut Corners – video for new single Of Whatever

01. Indie/alt/folk duo We Cut Corners have been busy this year, putting the finishing touches on third album The Cadences of Others.

02. Hefty shoes to fill: previous long-players Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards and Think Nothing were both Choice Prize nominees.

03. Streaming above is the video for Of Whatever, directed by Jon Hozier-Byrne. Evoking the sense of panic that 2016 has neatly been enveloped by, it features model Megan O’Malley sleeping through life/drowning in a shallow bed. Fun for the whole family.

04. Catch them tomorrow night in the Roisín Dubh in Galway, and on Saturday night in the Button Factory in Dubland.

Verdict: A lush, densely-arranged take on the band at their more usually considered bodes for a big-sounding LP.

We Cut Corners

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Marlene Enright – releasing new single Alchemy

What you may need to know…

01. The breathy, considered voice of Cork alt-folk outfit The Hard Ground, Marlene Enright has struck out solo in recent times with a run of singles.

02. Having helped see the Hard Ground through a crowd-funded trilogy of EPs, Triptych, in 2014, Enright’s debut solo album, Placemats and Second Cuts, is due in March of next year.

03. Streaming above is the video for new single Alchemy, filmed and directed by Cork filmmaker Barra Vernon.

04. Catch her touring Ireland in support of indie-rocker gone solo John Blek. John Cleere’s in Kilkenny on the 19th, Coughlan’s in Cork on the 25th, Phil Grimes’ in Waterford on the 26th, on the Other Voices Music Trail in Dingle on December 2nd and 3rd, capped off with a show at Whelan’s on the evening of the 3rd.

Verdict: Taking that slight, yet mighty voice in its own direction is a good fit, as Enright relays her own experiences with the help of purposeful writing and arrangement.

Marlene Enright

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ELLLL – releasing new extended-player Romance

What you may need to know…

01. Last time we checked in with ELLLL, she’d been putting the finishing touches on her first “proper” collection of songs after years of gigging and composing under the name.

02. Veering from her initial explorations in drone, ambient & noise, and into an atmospheric take on minimal techno, her debut extended player, Romance, finally releases across various formats this winter.

03. Streaming above is the eponymous leadoff tune from the extended player, with a full stream/interview over at the 405.

04. The E.P. releases this week digitally and next month on 12″ vinyl, via Sligo-based label Art for Blind, with the quest apparently on to assemble more tracks for a follow-on E.P.

Verdict: Laden with textures, and built on menacing, foreboding reinterpretations of a multitude of samples, this ought to be something else entirely to hear on wax.

ELLLL

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Overhead, the Albatross – Dublin post-rockers cover Hans Zimmer’s Time

What you may need to know…

01. Last we checked in with Overhead, the Albatross, they’d just launched their absolutely immense debut LP Learning to Growl.

02. Today, the band has released a wee stopgap between now and their big December gig in Vicar Street: their first ever attempt at a cover. Hans Zimmer’s Time, accompanied by Charlie Chaplin’s final speech from The Great Dictator. For the time that’s in it.

03. The video for same, directed by Luke Daly, is streaming above.

04. The band’s big year-end excursion happens at Vicar Street, December 9th. Tickets €20 plus various service fees.

Verdict: A brave take on a masterpiece, layered over with the pep-talk humanity needs at present.

Overhead the Albatross

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OST – reflections on Election Night

What you may need to know…

01. OST is the solo project of former We Come in Pieces man Shane Harrington. Last time we checked in on him, he’d just released third album Uncaused.

02. New single Bleed Line was released overnight Irish time, and takes a stab at fathoming the atmosphere in New York on the night of Trump’s election.

03. Writes Harrington:

This piece was recorded as an attempt to bottle the atmosphere on election night in Harlem, NYC, 11.08.16. Simultaneous feelings of uneasiness, uncertainty and a sort of involuntary detachment dominated. The mixing process, carried out a day later, added different colors. Concepts like America, time, depression, duality, escapism/arrival oscillated. The video collage was added last with an eye on media narratives, history and political OBEs.

04. Streaming above is the accompanying video collage, also assembled by Harrington.

Verdict: A stark and poignant reminder that when times get hard, the artists get to work, taking stock, documenting and fomenting change via organisation and discourse.

OST

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Ailbhe Reddy – Dublin folk/rock soloist

What you may need to know…

01. Folk-laden alternative drawn from personal experience is the order of the day for Dublin singer-songwriter Ailbhe Reddy.

02. Getting a start in 2014, she first drew attention from a wider audience after her tune Cover Me appeared across radio, while first single Flesh and Blood garnered good reviews and song-of-the-day features across the UK and Irish blogosphere.

03. Debut E.P. Hollowed Out Sea released this year, with production from Sacred Animals‘ Darragh Nolan. Streaming above is the video single Distrust.

04. Reddy is among the artists in the running for the fan vote to co-headline Other Voices and appear on the RTÉ TV show of the same name, alongside Jafaris, Meltybrains?, BARQ and Basciville. Vote here.

Verdict: Reddy clearly has the knack for big songwriting, but it’s tempered with a certain elegance that makes it all the more intriguing.

Ailbhe Reddy

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T-Woc – new album Sentinelas due soon on Rudimentary

What you may need to know…

01. Last we checked in with T-Woc, aka beatmaker Mick Donohoe, he’d just released his Jetstar E.P. on Limerick label The Unscene.

02. His follow-up is the first ever long-player released on Belfast hip-hop label Rudimentary, and comes from a trip to Brazil. Happening across Sao Paulo’s Feirão de Uma Milhao LPs market, Donohoe went digging, and among the stacks were some children’s comics that boasted of soundtrack 7″s that had long gone missing. A soundtrack for a lost kid’s comic, then, is Sentinelas, named for the comic’s villains.

03. Pre-orders are available now via Rudimentary‘s Bandcamp. Streaming above is a two-song preview, including lead-off tune O Tronco.

04. The album launches on November 19th in the Triskel in Cork, joined by Cholera House, Diamond Dagger and Automatic Tasty.

Verdict: Warm, bright, and vibrant music that’ll go down equally with math-rock and post-rock nerds as with beat hounds.

T-Woc