‘Weight’ is the first single from The Line’s upcoming debut album ‘Matter’.
Written and produced by multi-instrumentalist Brian Dillon and releasing tomorrow via Bad Soup Records, ‘Weight’ is a dramatic and expressive piece creating vast electronic landscapes with synthetic sounds, digital noise and compressed vocals.
Starting off with an alluring and almost nursery rhyme like simplicity, the track quickly veers to the weirder side, creating a bed of electronic string sounds that draws the listener in. This one is definitely a headphones must, there’s a whole lot going on you could easily miss.
Already a well known artist in Ireland (Meltybrains?, Loah, Lilla Vargen, Slow Skies), The Line is Dillon’s new solo project. Written over the course of a year, the album explores dichotomous themes of human emotion through experimentation with soundscapes and noise.
Dillion describes The Line is a modern take on the Irish singer-songwriter tradition, consisting of sparse, emotionally bare songs, layered with ambience, noise and mind-bending soundscapes.
We can’t wait to hear what The Line comes out with next!
The video, directed by guitarist Conor Dockery, features a colorful cast of cartoonish strongmen facing off against the band in an arm wrestling tournament. As always, it’s absolutely gas!
The Scratch are currently in the middle of a UK and Ireland tour with many of the dates sold out. Remaining tickets for the rest of the shows are available on their website. I highly recommend checking them out live if you have the chance!
‘Father Figure’ is a brand new song from Dublin-based indie quartet Arcwords. Following the release of their debut single ‘Toughen Up’ in April, Arcwords reentered the studio to record three new singles.
The first of these is Father Figure, a catchy indie anthem packed full of guitar hooks with a strong emotional core. The track is produced by Umbrella Records omnipresence Joseph Padfield (Race the Flux/Bannered Mare).
Father Figure’s release is accompanied by a music video, directed by frequent collaborator Olivia McLaughlin, and starring Kevin McMahon as a son dealing with the recent loss of his father.
Bio:
Arcwords are a four-piece, Dublin based indie band. After meeting as students in BIMM Dublin,
Arcwords have spent the last three years drawing upon post-punk and math rock styles to create a guitar-driven, hook filled sound. Arcwords combine influences such as Bloc Party, TTNG, the Smiths, and Everything Everything, to bring something new to the indie rock table.
Kojaque and Luka Palm are back with a brand new project called Green Diesel. The pair have collaborated in the past, notably on ‘Politicksis‘ from Deli Daydreams & more recently in singles ‘Date Night’ and ‘Airbnb’, both of which feature on the new album alongside 6 brand new tracks.
The pairs natural chemistry which comes across so easily on stage really transfers to the new project with the two swapping bars throughout. The record seems to be a more confident step out, less introspective than Deli Daydreams it brings a little less love and a little more braggadocio to the table.
Featuring production from long time collaborators Kean Kavanagh & Gaptoof plus newcomers Matt Finnegan, CHLOBOCOP and New Machine the record is a step in a new direction for the Soft Boy crew incorporating lo-fi and modern beats with fast flowing dynamic vocals.
Check it out for yourself below:
Kojaque and Luka Palm start a nationwide tour later this month before heading off around Europe to support UK rapper slowthai.
We’re starting 2019 off with a BANG! Bringing two of our favourite discoveries of last year together this Saturday in Sin É Dublin for a monstrous double headline show.
Bannered Mare is the new moniker of ex-Race the Flux front man Joe Padfield. In June he dropped the first single, ‘My Anatomy’, a sweeping blend of math-rock guitar layers and alt-folk touches. This was just the first taste of what was to come from Octobers ‘Gizzards EP’. Self recorded entirely by Padfield in Mayo’s Mariachi Studios, the EP is a collection of beautifully reflective songs that demands repeat listens.
In the months since, the band has been fleshed out with some of the Wests most prolific musicians. Joining him are Paul Higgins (ex-RTF) on Guitar, Kyle Dee (ex-Ka tet) on Bass, Derek Ellard (DerekEllardmusic) on Synth/Guitars and Dylan Murphy on Drums. With a new EP due to be released later this year, now is the perfect time to check this incredible act out live.
Stevie Darragh Music is perhaps better known as the lead guitarist of the many-headed behemoth that is Overhead, The Albatross. Following the massively successful release of 2016’s ‘Learning to Growl’ and it’s subsequent tours, Stevie wasted no time and released the gorgeous ‘Fragments EP’ in early 2018. An accomplished composer and multi-instrumentalist, Stevie flexes his orchestral muscles on the EP creating lush and emotive soundscapes. He realises these live through a combination of looped guitars, keyboards, vocals and multilayered backing tracks which truly result in an end far greater than the sum of it’s parts.
Sallay Matu Garnett, better known as Loah, is a spellbinding singer who grew up between Maynooth and Sierra Leone. She made her recorded debut with last years ‘This Heart’ EP and this year she is releasing new remixes for each song on the record, working with a variety of different producers and artists.
For ‘Keep Your Heart’, Limerick MC God Knows (of Choice Music Prize winners Rusangano Family) pens his most personal song to date over a loop of the Bantum produced instrumental ‘This Heart Interlude’. The lyrics tell of an emotional reunion with an old friend who’s fallen on hard times, a theme that’s sadly quite relatable to many young adults in Ireland.
God Knows threads the story through nostalgic childhood memories and the track is paired perfectly with a video filmed in Maynooth and Shannon (where Loah and God Knows grew up), produced by Irish studio Geppetto. Additional production on the track comes from Ben Bix & Dunny (Meltybrains?)
It’s fantastic to see so many brilliant artists collaborating regularly and strengthening the Irish music community.
Dublin Indie-punk quartet Pillow Queens have released a brand spanking new video for their single ‘Gay Girls’. The track is the groups first since March’s ‘State of the State’ EP and was produced by Tommy McLaughlin (Villagers, SOAK, Bell X1) in Attica Studios in Co. Donegal.
The track is about intoxicating lust and relentless religious repression, a theme which is compounded by a raucous outro featuring a full choir of singing voices.
Their previous music video for ‘Favourite’ was recently awarded Best Irish Music Video at the Irish Film Festival London and this new video from Director Kate Dolan could well be a contender for next year’s awards. It’s a super charming depiction of a communion money blowout by 4 girls, treating themselves to all the exciting things a local community can offer a 7 year old. Bottles of Cadet Orange, chips and sweet & sour flying saucers galore!
Pillow Queens have had a crazy year of live shows touring all over the UK & Ireland and hitting loads of festivals including KnockanStockan, Body and Soul, Electric Picnic, Hard Working Class Heroes & The Great Escape. We highly recommend catching them live in Whelan’s on November 24th while you still can! Tickets for their headline show are priced €16 and are available here.
Summer is officially here and we’re getting in on the fun with some fresh new folk acts to catch after the grand stretch in the evening!
Headlining on the night are Wexford twin brothers The Ocelots. With just a guitar, a harmonica and their voices, Brandon and Ashley have created a raw sound that has been generated from years of street performing all across Europe. They have crafted their songwriting and musical experience together to produce a forceful blend of rich harmonies and bare, raw acoustic folk. The Ocelots are known for their ability to capture an audience, with mesmerising melody and variety meeting their charm and wit on stage.
Support comes from folk singer/ songwriter Junior Brother. Hailing from Co. Kerry, he plays sometimes humorous, sometimes heady tunes. Strange stories, poetic and arcane, unfold with reckless abandon upon an idiosyncratic Guitar and Foot Tambourine accompaniment. Unique, experimental yet ambitious, his material draws heavily in tone and subject matter from his upbringing in rural Ireland, demonstrating a wild love of language.
Opening the show on the night is Tullamore native Eoin Martin who has spent the last number of years honing his craft and finding his own voice in the crowded singer-songwriter scene. And what a voice! Eoin mixes percussive acoustic guitar with complex finger picked melodies and rounds things off with a truly captivating vocal style, full of harmony and punctuated rhythms. Think Bon Iver and Newton Faulkner meeting up for a few sneaky pints.
Entry is FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and doors are at 8:00pm. See you in the front row!
Two of our favourite Irish bands return this week with two wildly different and equally exciting new singles.
Jazz/Punk/Psyjance purveyors Vernon Jane have just dropped a brilliant new video for their single ‘Fragile’, directed by Conor Dockery (DOCK). The track itself is an enigmatic display of songwriting, full of chaotic and disparate sounds that somehow gel together into a deep groove that’s hard to shake once it sticks in your head.
The band said in their own words:
”Fragile explores the darker side of human nature. It captures the constant battle between keeping yourself together, or letting yourself truly fall apart.The water in the video represents the feeling of suffocating under your own expectations. We tell ourselves we have to be stronger. We have to get better, And stay better. We forget to tell ourselves to be our own authentic self. To find strength in vulnerability and fragility. We push ourselves until we break. This video represents a breaking point.”
This may be one of the few opportunities to catch them on such a small stage, Vernon Jane have just signed a worldwide distribution deal with AMS Records as well as a Chinese distribution deal with Pocket Records. Their last single ‘Fuck Me’ has also racked up a crazy 227,000 plays online. Don’t sleep on this one people.
Also launching a new single on the night are Dublin fuzz merchants THUMPER. Explosively energetic live, previous recordings have leaned pretty steeply towards the lo-fi end of the spectrum, failing to fully capture the bands raucous sound. We’re happy to report that this is not the case on the Dan Fox (Girl Band) produced ‘AFL’. The track is a perfectly polished gritty ear bleeder, rocketing through it’s 3:43 and begging to be played again.
The song is about ageing rapidly but gaining no wisdom. Feeling like a child in a man’s suit, desperately playing catch-up in the Imposter Syndrome Champions League. Every Friday night gasping for answers in the smoking area of your nearest terror den. The music thunders on and words fall away like the raving of a calm lunatic. There’s no conclusion, even at the end.
Supporting both bands on the night are one of Ireland’s most promising instrumental bands, BiCurious. Twonys Cosmic Disco Wobbler DJs will finish out the night, hitting the decks til 3am.
Dublin Acoustic Folk-Rockers The Scratchhave released a breathtaking new video for their instrumental track ‘The Road to Ballyshannon’. The video would put Tourism Ireland to shame, it’s chock full of gorgeous vistas and sprawling coastlines. There’s a bit of craic thrown in at the end as well for good measure. The track features on their recently released Old Songs EP.
If you haven’t heard of The Scratch yet, you’re in for a treat. They describe themselves as ‘acoustic rock music that sounds like a pint of guinness to the ears’. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Recent singles have included ‘The Punisher’, a cautionary tale to pub-talkers everywhere, and Shadow, a collaboration with Loah. Both are absolute earworms that demand repeat listens. I can’t wait to hear what the lads come out with next.
