Tag Archives: You May Like This

11698598_10153413822683703_6835163852220126846_n

Hope is Noise – Bad Code

What you may need to know…

1. Hardy perennials of Cork’s DIY music community, four-piece Hope is Noise trade in noisy, heavy, hardcore-inflected, yet immediate and accessible alt-rock.

2. Last year celebrating ten years under their current moniker, the lads’ history extends all the way back to their secondary school days in the early ’90s, with the same core line-up remaining intact over the course of several bands over nearly 20 years. Eagle-eyed observers may remember them as The New Messiahs, among other names.

3. This year will see the release of fourth album Demons, and the completion of a documentary on their life and times both as a band, and as a group of lifelong friends.

4. Streaming above is Bad Code, a single taken from the upcoming album released back in November to coincide with their tenth-anniversary gig.

5. Next Friday, the band takes a rare sojourn to Waterford, where they play The Thirsty Scholar as part of the venue’s Voodoo Sessions. Kickoff at 9pm, support from The Smoking Giants.

Verdict: A furious, focused outfit that channels a wide range of influences, themes, and emotions into their music, and a formidable live proposition with a stage presence honed over the better part of two decades together.

Hope is Noise

19015_465184916996356_5595183809257186325_n

Here’s what you may need to know…

1. Limerick producer Graeme S. and vocalist Senita Appiakorang (also of neo-soul outfit Shookrah) are electronic/afrobeat duo Lakerama.

2. Coming together last year as a collaborative musical project, the band has stepped into the live sphere, including appearances at Dublin’s Bernard Shaw and Cork’s Quarter Block Party.

3. Debut EP One is streaming in its entirety in the widget above, including much-fancied lead off tune Take.

4. Catch them this Friday evening, supporting the mighty Rusangano Family, with whom Graeme has previously collaborated, at the Kino in Cork.

Verdict: A potent combination of ambient, house and Afrobeat influences, Lakerama’s standout quality is their command of dynamic, with Senita’s massive voice adding presence to Graeme S’ diversely informed electronica.

Lakerama

12742653_1683605085218547_3884192969758664485_n

The Sunshine Factory – Cruelest Animal

What you may need to know.

1. Beginning to garner praise, Leeside young neo-psychedelic four-piece The Sunshine Factory arrived in February when they packed out the Cork Community Print Shop, launching an eponymously-titled tape EP in the process.

2. From said cassette comes Cruelest Animal, streaming above. The band’s Soundcloud is also full of rough demos, painting a picture of a band that’s been slowly putting the pieces together over the course of the past year.

3. Next gig is on April 16, supporting Dublin shoegazers September Girls (launching album Age of Indignation) in Cyprus Avenue, Cork, presented by Leeside rock raconteurs Alliance Promotions.

4. The band have the biggest break of their young run so far next month, touring in support of English psych-rock legends The Telescopes. Thursday 12 at Brewery Corner in Kilkenny, Friday 13 (!) at The Thirsty Scholar in Waterford, Saturday 14 at the Crane Lane Theatre in Cork, and Sunday 15 at Dublin’s Workman’s Club.

Verdict: With inflections of post-punk and psychedelia amid the band’s noise, The Sunshine Factory will appeal to genre enthusiasts, as well as anyone of lo-fi/possible C86 sensibilities.

The Sunshine Factory

12348107_922019991212723_2976759553934392684_n

Twin-Headed Wolf – released/gigging pre-debut album The Long Decay

What you may need to know…

1. Julie and Branwen are Twin-Headed Wolf, a pair of twin sisters from Lahinch, Co. Clare, specialising in wonky, playful folk, making heavy use of the pair’s way with vocal harmonies.

2. Having spent the last few years perfecting their offbeat, ethereal take on the folk oeuvre with an array of non-traditional instrumentation and charismatic live presence, the duo serves us a curveball with an acapella album of folk standards that functions as prelude to their upcoming debut LP proper: The Long Decay.

3. The record is named for its recording in the Emmanuel Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo, back in January, a tomb/acoustic chamber with up to 14 seconds of echo.

4. With the record released in February and launched in Dublin’s Unitarian Church, the pair turn their live attention to Cork Community Print Shop, with a live engagement in the non-profit arts space on Friday, April 8th.

Verdict: Gleeful, joyfully demented folk antics with a bold experimental streak. Their impending debut LP of originals ought to be a treat.

Twin-Headed Wolf

Therapy-2014-028a

Therapy? – Tides

Here’s what you may need to know…

01. The gatekeepers of the Irish underground are in rude health as always. Twenty-seven years and counting in the game, with their fourteenth album Disquiet hitting shelves last year, Ballyclare/Larne’s Therapy? unleash their best ‘pop’ single in years with Tides.

02. Though many casual observers associate the boys in black with their major-label heyday in the mid-Nineties, they never went away.

03. Sadly unloved belters include 1999’s Suicide Pact – You First and 2004’s Never Apologise Never Explain, but most notably a pair of honest-to-jaysus classics in 2010’s cerebral Crooked Timber and 2012’s groovy A Brief Crack of Light.

04. Disquiet, from which Tides is taken, acts as a sequel of sorts to 1994’s million-selling Troublegum, and sees the band revisiting that album’s teenage protagonist as a middle-aged man in the throes of further tumult.

05. The song itself is inspired singer/guitarist Andy Cairns‘ time living in Dun Laoghaire [Co Dublin], as evidenced by the single’s artwork.

06. Keen punk fans will spot the other reference in the cover art immediately, and it’s intentional: Bob Mould, of hardcore trailblazers/accidental college-rock inventors Hüsker Dü was a major influence on the song’s writing.

Verdict: Though the album itself feels a little retro after the band’s insistence on forward-thinking for the better part of three decades, Tides is one of its highlights. Here’s hoping for more of this somewhat psychey, washed-out pop in the not too dim ‘n’ distant.

Therapy?

11752520_821824334599258_9060011613971047179_n

Megacone – Absolute Magnitude

Here’s what you may need to know…

01. Megacone are a Dublin-based five-piece trading in a math-inflected strain of post-rock. Equally atmospheric and technically intricate, their output so far has been very impressive.

02. Absolute magnitude is “the measure of the intrinsic brightness of a celestial object”. It’s also Megacone’s new song, recorded by Rian Trench (of Solar Bears) and Robert Scanlon.

03. This seven-minute opus is Megacone’s step into a much bigger, spacier sound, and the video, directed by Bailey & Blake Productions, plays off this with an elaborate video that contrasts cinematography and production values with drone-shot performance footage.

04. They’re playing the Venture Takeover stage of the BD Festival on Good Friday in the Wicklow Mountains, amid a quality helping of Irish math-rock, post-rock and other awkward/technically-accomplished shenanigans.

Verdict: Accomplished stuff from lads as young as this five-piece. Keep a close eye on them: it’s not for no reason they’re this ambitious this early in the game.

Megacone

Photo credit: AK Photography.

12118648_10153297035657872_1903750152022159691_n

Sounds Of A System Breakdown – Punishing Love

What you may need to know

01. London-resident Dublander Rob Costello, alongside collaborators Ed Costello and Richy Kelly, form the live electronic collective known as Sounds of System Breakdown. Rather than do the whole static laptop-and-beardstroking bit, the band exist in the physical space, swapping instruments and generally giving it socks.

02. They’re somewhat of a veteran outfit by now, together/active in some form since 2008. New EP Punishing Love (title track streaming above) is their first release since August 2014’s Giving Up single, also included on the EP. Vinyl pops and clicks pockmark a steady mover of a tune, strong beats underpinning a stark yet layered soundscape.

03. The video was directed by the good folk at FailSafe Films, and has a novel twist on the whole “dancer in video” trope – it was filmed at a Strictly Come Dancing night at St. Patrick’s GFC, in Lordship, Co. Louth. It follows Jade and Christopher’s quest to bring home first prize, a beautifully-realised look at small-town life, teamwork, and developing partnerships.

04. No announced live dates in support of the EP just yet, but, oh, look: it’s out on limited edition 12″ vinyl. Get that here. It’s also up on iTunes and Bandcamp for download, and on Spotify for those so inclined.

Verdict: Much to be loved here by fans of electronic, indie, ambient and post-rock. A multifaceted outfit showcases a multifaceted sound.

Sounds of System Breakdown

RBOTN

Rabid Bitch of the North – Green Eyes

What you may need to know…

1. Belfast’s Rabid Bitch of the North trade exclusively in a falsetto-laden, old-school strain of thrash metal, with pockmarks of the genre’s NWOBHM predecessors for good measure. Precisely zero fecks are given at any point for your opinion on the matter.

2. Green Eyes is out now via Greek label Alone Records, on the hallowed medium of 7″ vinyl, with an accompanying woven patch (for your battle jacket) also available. The suitably retro video (above) was directed and edited by Full Scope Films.

3. They’re great craic live, in fairness. We caught them at an installment of the Siege of Limerick all-dayer a while back and had fun. Their lean, tight, power-trio setup just does their tunes justice.

4. They’re supporting American metal legends Argus at On The Rox in Dubland on March 13, alongside heavy-metal traditionalists Stereo Nasty. Tickets €15 on the door with merch stalls on the night.

Verdict: While possibly not everyone’s cup of tay, even in the preponderously fractured & diverse world of metal and its derivatives, there’s no knocking RBOTN’s dedication to providing a decent dose of unassuming, unpretentious thrash. Fair balls.

Rabid Bitch Of The North

Mick-T-Woc

 

T-Woc – Jetstar Vol. II E.P.

Here’s what you might need to know:

1. Producer from Wicklow releasing through Limerick’s The Unscene label, responsible for putting out some of the cream of Irish hip-hop in recent years.

2. Wonky, bassy, dubby instrumental hip-hop with a gentle tinge of psychedelia and noise. “On a bit more of a tropical tip these days”, says himself.

3. Supported Eek-A-Mouse on Irish tour, and has produced an acclaimed mix for All City Records, among other things.

4. New E.P. Jetstar Vol. II came out this week on The Unscene’s Bandcamp page, available for streaming and download in the platform’s usual ridiculous array of formats.

5. This release was preceded with the first ever press release your writer has ever received that has been written entirely in the form of dialogue.

Verdict: Dig in. Quality, quirky, dubby instrumentalness that’s well worth a lash.

bantum&loah

Batnum & Loah – Take it

What you may need to know

1. Bantum, aka Ruairí Lynch, is an exiled Corkman living and producing in Dubland. His 2013 magnum opus ‘Legion‘ is among the best Irish electronic/pop records committed to wax in recent years. A consistent releaser of singles/EPs with unreleased B-side material, too, a rarity in this day and age.

2. Loah, an Irish/Sierra Leonean vocalist tipped for big things by Irish music blogs like Goldenplec and The Thin Air, puts in an absolutely breathtaking vocal, layered with beautiful harmonies. We’re eagerly awaiting her debut EP this year.

3. This stunning video was directed by Peter O’Brien, produced by Motherland, and features dancer Laura Sarah Dowdall. No lighting was used bar the street light seen here.

4. True to form, the digital download and Spotify stream comes with a stripped-down ‘blues mix’ as a b-side/bonus track.

5. Bantum used to live with Keith from Limerick two-piece giveamanakick, which is class when you think about it.

Verdict: A major step forward for two of Ireland’s most talented artists.

Bantum & Loah,