SONGS OF THE WEEK
Hozier – Better Love
The Hoze has made such an impression on the music world that the first new bit of music to follow the massively successful debut album is a song featured on the Hollywood blockbuster
The Legend Of Tarzan
. Hozier's vocal was always large in scope, but set against big orchestral strings and a sense of cinematic grandiosity, he ably holds his own. As does his long-time producer partner Rob Kirwan.
Adultrock – Push And Pull
If you like your dance music robotic but with a touch of the real, get your ears around the new song from Gavin Elsted AKA Adultrock.
Push And Pull
is high-grade music for the dancefloor built on a rolling bassline, a synth arpeggio and a shimmering percussive rhythm with the vocals adding some strong-willed emotion. The song is on a 12” release on Bodytonic out now.
Cruising – My Twin Sister
When some guitar music comes at you with attitude and a razor-sharp sound, you take notice. Cruising are a post-punk leather-jacket wearing music street gang made up of members of Logikparty, Girls Names, Sea Pinks and September Girls, and the band's new song
My Twin Sister
cuts right to the chase.
The Divine Comedy – Catherine The Great
Neill Hannon is up to his old tricks again with this idiosyncratic baroque pop song about the 18th-century leader of Russia who “looked bloody good on a horse”. In Hannon's own words, this is "the most historically inaccurate hit of the summer". The single is from The Divine Comedy's eleventh album
Foreverland,
out on September 2nd.
RELEASE OF THE WEEK
Ensemble Éiru - Imbas
Imbas is an Irish word that translates as "creative inspiration", and there's plenty of it striking in the hands of the seven-piece band lead by Neil O'Loghlen and Jack Talty. Many of the songs are inspired by players John Kelly, Bobby Casey, Willie Clancy and Peadar Ó Riada. Ensemble Éiru's songs are contemporary and improvised takes on trad tunes and, as such, they push and pull between ideas, sounds and genres. It's the presence of marimba, double bass and clarinet that add some otherworldliness to Imbas' rich tapestry.
NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Dermot Kennedy
Kennedy is a young folk singer-songwriter who has been making some industry noise recently. Live, he's supported the likes of Glen Hansard and James Vincent McMorrow, and his Spotify numbers - streams of more than 3.5 million of one song alone - are setting some industry tongues wagging.
After Rain
is the song in question – a woodsy romantic folk pop number.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK Aphex Twin - CIRKLON3 [Колхозная mix]
Director: Ryan Wyer
When I was 12, I was probably listening to Michael Jackson and playing International Superstar Soccer on the Super Nintendo. Ryan Wyer, a 12-year-old from Rush, Co Dublin was asked by the Limerick-born artist Aphex Twin to make a homemade video for his new track, after seeing Wyer's fan video for an Aphex Twin song. They sent him some T-shirts and Wyer went wild with it.
