SONGS OF THE WEEK
Wallis Bird - Change
Having worked on her new album for the past 20 months, Berlin-based Irish singer-songwriter Wallis Bird has revealed the first track off
Home
, an album that is framed as an homage to her partner and muse.
Change
sounds at first like an anguished song, but it soon reveals itself to be a song of strong resolve.
Everything Shook - I Got A Gun
Somewhere between freak folk, ambient electronica and gothic chanting lies Everything Shook, a three-piece who release their debut album
Drinking About You
this week.
I Got A Gun
brings hypnotic hypnagogic pop to the table while eerily whispering in your ears. The band launch the album in the Dublin Food Co-Op this Saturday.
Le Boom - What We Do
Dubliner Christy Leech spent last summer playing music and DJing in Brooklyn warehouses, a fine time that led to some home-recorded dance music with a broken bass, a gutted guitar and some melodic muscle.
What We Do
is a fine debut single release, informed by the synth-pop of Hot Chip and lo-fi dancefloor atmospherics.
Divan - Shards
Formerly known as The Ambient Affair, Divan are are three-piece of Jamie Clarke, Marc Gallagher and Conor Deasy, whose newly renamed project is inspired by indie-rock of all ilks.
Shards
burns with a thirst for more amidst handclaps and harmonies.
Twin Villains - Short Drop, Sudden Stop
Drogheda three-piece Twin Villains keep things anthenic and post-rock leaning on the lead track from their self-titled EP. They call it Biffycore, thus revealing their main influence.
RELEASE OF THE WEEK
Insufficient Funs - Insufficient Funs
Drummer Matthew Jacobson (Ensemble Ériu, ReDiviDeR) and saxophonist Sam Comerford's (Umbra, AERIE) new cheekily titled project recently returned from the annual experimental jazz festival 12 Points, which took place in San Sebastian this year. To coincide with that concert, the pair released a half-hour long EP that sets out their stall and makes plain why they were a hit this year. The combination of jazz drumming and the low-toned bass saxophone makes for loosely shaking rhythmic excursions and a real sense of exploration, with both players reacting to each other in real-time, switching it up and moving it on in new ways, creating unique textures as they go.
Insufficient Funs
is delightfully unhinged from expectation.
NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Hot Cops
Belfast three-piece band Hot Cops draw their inspirations from raggedy indie and grunge dirges. Live, they are beamed from the original era with withdrawn stares and loose clothing. On record, it's all angst-driven slow rock with spiralling Pavement-esque melodies. New single
Dumbbo
on Paper Trail Records is a prickly song about a baby elephant trying to keep up with the herd.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
James Vincent McMorrow - Rising Water
Directed by David M Helman
An artist who always has interesting music videos (in which he normally does not appear), McMorrow has drafted in Helman to capture the essence of a song (“the things we will do in order to move through loss”) utilising a beautiful beach, close human interaction and interpretive dancing.
