Tag: Dublin Ireland

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of the first two singles “Shambhala” and “Darts,” the up-and-coming Dublin, Ireland-based experimental rock/psych rock sextet Fat Pablo quickly emerged into their homeland’s busy music scene, essentially carving a new musical niche for themselves with a sound that some have described as recalling Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Grizzly Bear.

Fat Pablo’s latest single “Ganki” is a gauzy and woozy bit of psychedelia centered around a propulsive bass line, layers of shimmering guitars within an expansive song structure that finds the band carefully walking a tightrope between anthemic urgency and slow-burning pensiveness in a way that reminds me of JOVM mainstays Caveman. “Ganki took a good while for us to write. We went back to the drawing board a few times with this one as it was tough to merge the urgency at the beginning of the song with the mellowness of the latter half,” the band explains in press notes. “We think we’ve found a nice balance where you get the best of both worlds. We try not to act as a one trick pony, but rather an acre of unicorns.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dublin’s Submotile Releases a Lysergic “120 Minutes”-like Visual for “Eastern Sky Sundown”

Comprised of Irish-born, Dublin-based Michael Farren (guitar) and Italian-born, Dublin-based Daniela Angione (vocals), the Dublin-based indie act Submotile initially began as an experimental, ambient project. The project’s sound evolved considerably when Angione began to add vocals to Farren’s guitar experiments, which eventually resulted in their first proper collaborative track “Signs of My Melody.”

The duo’s debut EP We’re Losing The Light was released to significant interest in shoegazer circles. Farren and Angione were encouraged to pursue their long-held dream — writing and recording a proper full-length album. Released digitally a few weeks ago, the duo’s full-length debut Ghosts Fade on Skylines finds the duo blurring the lines between shoegaze, noise rock, ambient, post-rock and pop — all while drawing from Slowdive, Warpaint, Smashing Pumpkins, Swans, Spiritualized, Nirvana and others. “We wanted an album that ebbed and flowed, with nine diverse songs that complimented each other without being too different from each other. The idea behind the music is to express the dualism of warmth over hostility, passion over frustration, all these dynamics projected onto a sense of hope and renaissance. I’m not sure if we succeeded, but hopefully it works,” Daniela Angione says in press notes.

“Having quit music in 2009 due to the frustration of never having been able to translate the sounds in my head to tape, Ghosts Fade on Skylines was recorded during a wonderful period of rebirth and rejuvenation, a period where I was discovering all the great new music that was out there, whilst simultaneously finding out just how far music production technology had evolved,” Michael Farren explains in press notes. “This evolution allowed us to come that bit closer to the sound in our heads, enabling us to labor over songs, adding hundreds of tracks and experimenting with samples, guitar pedals and tones – many a happy hour was whiled away tracking this music. If someone out there enjoys listening to it a fraction as much as we enjoyed making it, then to me it’ll be a success.”

Interestingly, the album’s latest single, the immersive and enveloping “Eastern Sky Sundown” is centered by layers upon layers of buzzing and reverb-drenched guitars, four-on-four-like drumming, a rousingly anthemic hook and Angione’s ethereal vocals floating over the lysergic and oceanic mix — and while bearing an uncanny resemblance to The Jesus and Mary Chain and Smashing Pumpkins, the track bristles with the newfound self-assured of a band that found their sound. Unsurprisingly, the recently released video for “Eastern Sky Sundown” features appropriately psychedelic imagery while recalling 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock.

Look for a limited edition run of Ghosts Fade on Skyline through Midsummer Madness Records this summer.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Silverbacks Release Hallucinatory Visuals for Gang of Four-like “Just In The Band”

Initially begun as a bedroom songwriting project of primary songwriters, founding members and brothers Kilian and Daniel O’Kelly and eventually expanding into a full-fledged quintet, the Dublin-based art punk band Silverbacks specialize in an angular, and furious post-punk centered around a triple guitar-led attack, lead singer Daniel O’Kelly’s dryly humorous lyrics and infectious hooks. The Irish quintet’s Daniel Fox-produced single “Just In The Band,” will be released through the band’s PK Miami Records early next year, and while the new single continues a run of uneasy, downright anxious singles, it has a Gang of Four-like muscular groove that reveals a young band expanding upon their sound.

Filmed and edited by Stephen Connelly, the recently released video for “Just In The Band”  features the band performing the song in a small room — but shot with double exposures, which gives the visuals a hallucinatory air. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Earlier this year, I wrote about the up-and-coming Northern Ireland-born, Dublin, Ireland-based duo Saint Sister. And as you may recall, the act which is comprised of Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntrye can trace their origins to when they met while studying at the University of Dublin. They bonded over their mutual desire to create music that represented both their friendship and their “us against the world” mentality. Building upon a growing national and international profile, the duo’s Alex Ryan-produced full-length debut Shape of Silence was released earlier this year, and from album single “Steady,” the duo showcased their ability to craft an atmospheric Portishead-inspired sound centered around the duo’s gorgeous and ethereal yet heartfelt vocals.

Recently, two of Dublin’s up-and-coming underground artistrs Irish DJ and producer Kormac along with Dublin-based emcee Jafaris collaborated with the members of Saint Sister on a subtle remix/reworking of “Causing Trouble” that’s centered around the same shimmering and looped harp sample; however, while the original features big, thumping beats, the remix relies on hi-hat and shuffling beats, which puts a greater emphasis on Doherty and MacIntyre’s gorgeous vocals and Jafaris’ swaggering yet sensitive verses. And it’s done in a way in which all three vocalists sit side by side without interference — and in a way that feels natural and unhurried.  As a result, the remix finds the collaborators pushing Saint Sister’s sound more towards the direction of Tricky and Massive Attack. Interestingly, the collaboration can came about when Three Ireland invited each artist to create visually stunning music videos for one of their songs for their #MadebyMusic initiative.

“It’s good to get out of your own head and collaborate with other people, and it’s something we really enjoy doing. This one felt like it really clicked, each individual voice brought something so different,” the members of Saint Sister say in press notes. “When Kormac first sent through the remix it was like hearing it in a new context with a new lease of life. Hearing Jafaris’ verses for the first time was another brilliant moment. And playing it live is the best part. They bring so much energy to every performance, it’s always a joy to stand beside them on stage.”

“I love the idea of blending two really different artists tonality together to create something a bit different.  Producing this one was a lovely challenge as it was all about creating a space where Saint Sister’s gorgeous melodies and harmonies and Jafaris’ vocals, his delivery could sit side by side,” Kormac says of the remix in press note. “The initial idea just came from playing my piano to a glitchy loop created from one of Gemma’s harp lines. From there, it was all about bringing the sub bass to the fore and creating a couple of drops to really announce Jafaris’ vocals when they came in.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Initially begun as a bedroom songwriting project of primary songwriters, founding members and brothers Kilian and Daniel O’Kelly and eventually expanding into a full-fledged quintet, the Dublin-based art punk band Silverbacks specialize in an angular, and furious post-punk centered around a triple guitar-led attack, lead singer Daniel O’Kelly’s dryly humorous lyrics and infectious hooks. The Irish quintet’s Daniel Fox-produced single “Just In The Band,” will be released through the band’s PK Miami Records early next year, and while the new single continues a run of uneasy, downright anxious singles, it has a Gang of Four-like muscular groove that reveals a young band expanding upon their sound.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of the Northern Ireland-born, Dublin, Ireland-based duo Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntrye, the up-and-coming Dublin-based synth pop act Saint Sister can trace their origins to when the duo met while studying at the University of Dublin — and while studying, the duo bonded over their mutual desire to create music that represented both their friendship and their “us against the world” mentality.  Building upon a growing international profile, the Irish duo’s highly-anticipated Alex Ryan-produced full-length debut Shape of Silence is slated for an October 5, 2018 release, and the album  reportedly will showcase the duo’s ability to craft atmospheric, trip-hop like synth pop paired with dreamy vocals singing heartfelt vocals; in fact, Shape of Silence’s latest single “Steady” is centered around a lush yet minimalist production consisting of twinkling keys, atmospheric electronics, thumping beats and gorgeous vocals — and while seemingly being indebted to Portishead, the single reveals a profoundly self-assured and feminine strength.

The Irish synth pop duo are currently in the middle of a 3 week headlining North American tour. Check out the remaining tour dates below.

TOUR DATES:

09/29 Chicago, IL – Schuba’s
10/02 Seattle, WA – Barboza
10/03 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
10/05 San Francisco, CA – Cafe Du Nord
10/06 Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Gorgeous and Soaring Sounds of Dublin’s Cloud Castle Lake

Currently comprised of Daniel McAuley (vocals, synths), Brendan William Jenkinson (guitar, piano), Rory O’Connor (bass) and Brendan Doherty (drums), along with a rotating cast of collaborators and friends, the Dublin, Ireland-based act Cloud Castle Lake derive their name from a Vladimir Nabokov short story about a voyager, who finds a place so beautiful that he wants to spend the rest of his life there, but is cruelly dragged back to reality. And with their 2014 self-released debut EP, Dandelion, the Irish act received attention for a sound that routinely juxtaposes dark and despairing lyrics with a euphoric catharsis that increasingly draws from the work of Alice Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders while being equal parts pastoral folk and soaring post-rock crescendos. And adding to a growing profile, the band has opened for touring acts such as Glasser, Lisa Hanningan and Ultraisa. 

Cloud Castle Lake had recently re-surfaced with the release of “Twins,” their first single in quite some time and building upon the buzz of that single, the Irish quartet released the stunning and breathtakingly gorgeous, Amnesiac-era Radiohead-like single “Bonfire,” which features twinkling, arpeggiated keys, and jazz-infected drumming and a tender yet soaring melody. As the band’s Daniel McAuley explained in press notes, “Bonfire is based around a pretty simple melody I came up with a few years ago. I kept being drawn back to it periodically and steadily adding and expanding it until it grew out into a full song. Writing it felt like a meditative task – what I’d imagine knitting a scarf is like. The choir parts were performed by our pals Tonnta, a contemporary choral group from Dublin. The giddiest day of recording for me was probably the first day they came in and sang through their parts. Getting to hear such talented musicians turn all that midi data and notation into music feels like magic. The lyrics have to do with doubt and denial and keeping secrets. They’re very loosely based on an old Irish/Welsh myth about rival tribes trying to find out the secret name of the other’s god in order to defeat them.”

Next month, the members of the Irish quartet will be embarking on a 5 date North American tour with stops in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and a February 6, 2018 stop at Rockwood Music Hall. These tour dates will serve as a bold re-introduction to the band, as well as building up buzz for the band’s Rob Kirwan-produced debut, slated for a Spring 2018 release. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few years, you may have come across a couple of posts featuring the Dublin, Ireland-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and electro pop artist Sorcha Richardson. Initially relocating to the States to study, Richardson quickly developed a number of close relationships within Brooklyn’s underground electro pop/electronic music scene that wound up influencing the sonic direction of the material she had started to write and record; in fact, the Dublin-born, Brooklyn-based pop artist first caught the attention of the blogosphere with CON VOS, a musical project that received praise from Nylon, Pigeons & Planes, and Indie Shuffle.

Richardson quickly followed that up with her bedroom recorded debut EP Sleep Will Set Me Free EP, which received 200,000 Soundcloud streams and caught the attention of Crosswalk Records/Delicieuse Musique, who released the Last Train EP. Adding to a rapidly growing profile, Richardson has played sets at Northside Festival and CMJ, and several other festivals, as well as a number of headlining shows. Now, it’s been some time since I’ve personally written about the Dublin-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and pop artist, but she’s been rather busy writing and recording a number of singles that have further cemented her reputation for crafting deeply introspective pop, including her latest single, “4AM,” single in which the song’s narrator muses about her current love prospects — with recognition of two things: that if things go wrong in a prospective relationship, it’s not always your fault — and the narrator proudly recognizes that being alone is perfectly fine to want to be alone and unbothered by someone else’s baggage and bullshit. Reportedly, the song, which is by far the most brooding in Richardson’s growing catalog, finds her pairing a sparse, Dido-like arrangement of dramatic piano chords with a soaring, radio-friendly hook with a club-leaning production featuring enormous tweeter and woofer rocking beats, swooning synths and Richardson’s ethereal yet achingly earnest croon. The song manages to walk a careful tightrope between late night, lonely regret over a relationship that has gone wrong and the pride of moving forward as quickly as possible from a flaming disaster — and it’s done with an honesty that comes from personal experience.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Dale Nicholls is a Los Angeles, CA-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who has spent stints residing in Detroit, MI; Dublin, Ireland; Paris, France; New Zealand and elsewhere. When Nicholls returned to Los Angeles, he ended his previous band and initially started his latest project Sky Chefs as a solo recording project, but has recently expanded into a full-fledged band, featuring members of Cherry Glazerr, The Black Keys, Pageants, Psychic Temple and the backing bands of Fiona Apple, Lou Reed and Chris Cohen.

Last year, was a busy year for Nicholls and his backing band, as Sky Chefs released their full-length debut, three EPs and a single and building upon a growing profile, the project’s Chris Schlarb-produced, sophomore effort Ghosts & Goblins carefully walk the tightrope between sly, winking nature and wry, heart-wrenching confessionals as the material thematically focuses on brokenhearted lovers, embittering relationships, our new, perpetually anxious age, batshit crazy families and family members, designer riot gear and the seemingly comic absurdity of living in Los Angeles. And reportedly, the material may arguably the most straightforward Nicholls has written — the material was mostly written and composed in Dublin and Los Angeles, whereas some of his previously recorded material was written in piecemeal and as patchwork affairs in several different locales.

“Poltergeist,” Ghosts & Goblins’ latest single as Nicholls explains is about “toxic relationships and self-destruction. Framed in a spooky groove, with lots of fun percussion. This was the first tune we tracked for the record. Once we got a take, we drenched everything in reverb and went out for shawarma.” Sonically speaking, the shuffling and strutting “Poltergeist” sounds as though it draws from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ “Red Right Hand” and Tim Cohen‘s solo work and his work with Magic Trick, complete with a loose, boozy, improvised vibe, 60s psych rock-inspired organ, a soulful horn line and a propulsive bass line paired with Nicholls’ equally boozy crooning describing a viciously dysfunctional and fucked up relationship fueled by a confusing push and pull, deceit and tortuous, zero sum mind games. And as a result, the song possesses a murky undertone.

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed in the early 90s and featuring Dermot Lambert (vocals, guitar), Robbie Sexton (keys), Brian McLoughlin (bass) and Barry Campbell (drums), Blink is a Dublin, Ireland-based rock quartet who have released three albums to date, 1994’s A Map of the Universe, 1998’s The End is Nigh and 2004’s Deep Inside the Sound of Sadness. And as the story goes with their inclusion on a New York-based trade festival CD in the early 90s, the Irish quartet quickly received international attention as EMI Records had signed the band for their 1994 debut; but before that the band had achieved quite a bit of attention back home in Ireland — their first two singles “Going to Nepal” and “Happy Day” reached the Irish Top 20, and their third single “It’s Not My Fault” debuted at number 8.
With the Irish quartet’s sophomore effort, the band broke through Stateside as The End Is Night was named Billboard‘s five-star album of the month and was named Billboard‘s album of the week before going on to quickly sell 90,000 copies, which allowed them to open for a number of well-known acts of the era including Mercury Rev, Moby, Lloyd Cole, The Cardigans, Mark Geary and Blink-182 (who ironically enough, the members of Blink sued for copyright infringement when Blink-182 was originally known as Blink; so talk about an awkward tour, huh?). And the band’s most recent album was nominated for Best Irish Album during 2005’s Meteor Music Awards.

It’s been a while since the band has released anything although the band’s frontman Dermot Lambert released a critically applauded solo effort back in 2013; however, March 3, 2017 will mark the re-issue of the band’s debut effort A Map of the Universe and the beginning of the a series of re-issues of their back catalog. And to mark the release, the band recently released “Happy Christmas 22 (I Still Miss You)” as a standalone single for the first time ever — although the single was released on A Map of the Universe. While being fitting for the season, the song is a rousingly anthemic track, which also appropriately sound of its era; in other words, it manages to be reminiscent of Brit Pop superstars RIDE, Oasis and others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal Visuals and Swaggering, Hyper-Futuristic Sounds of Bonzai’s “I Did”

As you’ll hear on “I Did,” the latest single off Lunacy pairs Mura Masa’s swaggering futuristic and incredibly unique production style comprised of industrial clang and clatter, stuttering and skittering beats, staccato cascades of hot, neon synths with Bonzai’s swaggering, self-assured vocal style, which nods at a young Missy Elliot. As the Irish pop artist explains “I wrote ‘I Did’ about some people I felt were jealous of me and I what I was doing cause they think they’re better than me and you know that might be true but I did something with myself and they did not.” She later explains on the incredibly technicolor and psychedelic animated video directed by Tom Bunker, which features Bonzai’s cartoon avatar running through a surreal, dream-like jungle, “the video is meant to depict a journey to success, the tree being the tough climb to the top and the voyage through space at the end being the sweet victory.”

As the video’s producer Tom Bunker adds “The original idea for the video came out of a discussion illustrator Pete Sharp and I had with Cassia [a.k.a. Bonzai) about the track It follows themes that Bonzai puts across in the track about progression in life and moving away from negativity, which could be resentment from your peers or a giant smoke monster that lives in a log. It’s a pretty relatable struggle either way. For the jungle sequences, a lot of the plant and wildlife were a mishmash of different fruits and flowers which Pete took from old Botanical drawings and references of exotic animals.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Triple Hex Returns with Sleazy Visuals for Their New Single “Dead Stars”

Founded by Dave Tudi (guitar, vocals), Brooklyn-based act Triple Hex have developed a reputation for a decadently sleazy, gritty, late night drugs, drink and sex-based rock sound that seems to draw heavily from the likes […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

The Dublin-based trio of No Spill Blood originally started as a side project with each member of the act bounding over a mutual love of Devo, Trans Am and The Melvins when they recorded their […]