SONGS OF THE WEEK
Daithí ft Sinead White - Love On Top
The Galway fiddle player and electronic pop maestro continues to impress. Following on from a track that sampled his 90-year-old granny, Daithí has enlisted the help of Dublin singer-songwriter Sinead White for a proper pop banger that in an ideal world, should be all over the airwaves this summer.
Little Green Cars - Easier Day
With their second album approaching release on March 11th on Glassnote Records, the south Co Dublin band give Faye O'Rourke the spotlight in which she delivers an impassioned dramatic vocal set to rich indie-rock harmonics.
Marlene Enright - When The Water Is Hot
Another female singer whose sweetness shines through on her band's songs (Cork's The Hard Ground). Enright's debut solo vocal is described as a mix of Karen O, Joanna Newsom and Gillian Welch. There's a rootsy American undercurrent to the song with Enright leading us to our demise - “I'll lead you on to drop in the pot like a lobster when the water is hot.”
Ocho - Vines
Last heard via their 2012 debut Young Hunting, Ocho's trip-hopping electronic music returns with a sense of urgency on their new single and a Goldfrapp comparison to boot. The song is being released on Cork's Feel Good Lost label and the band play Connolly's Of Leap in West Cork on February 27th alongside Talos and Joni.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Bleeding Heart Pigeons - Is
The youth of the Limerick band Bleeding Heart Pigeons works in their favour on their debut album. Where previous EPs addressed Columbine school shooting and was shot through with teen angst, the full-length feels macro in musical and lyrical terms. The songs, strong and sinewy (mixed by David Wrench who has recently involved in records by Caribou, Jape and FKA Twigs), twist and turn with an artistic indie-rock fervour often raising to crescendos on O Happy Happy, A Hallucination and Anything You Want. Vocally, Michéal Keating sounds like he's beamed from the late-1980s hall of reverbed rock on Vapour, the youthful crack in his lungs brings you back to the present.
Occasionally, in the dance between vocals and guitar notes, the xx is a refrain. Contrast is provided with the rolling ambience of In A Forest, the orchestral creeper Dancer and the synth style of Sister. A number of songs pass the eight-minute mark and the album closes with two nine-minute plus songs. The album leaves a sense of people and musicians (with eight years of experience together already) creating art-rock in transitional phase. What comes next may define them more than that album title.
NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK
ELLLL
Cork producer Ellen King has been cultivating a propulsive style of low-end techno that exists in a blotted form on latest track Romance, a self-described "beat-driven collage with a playful and sinister narrative". A further six original tracks and a remix of Lytett reveal a musician with an interested in experimental suspense and darkness. Recent live sets have included a Cork Film Festival party and a support slot with Tim Hecker. Check out her Soundcloud page here
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Monster Monster - The City's Ours
Directed by Sean Clarke
Mick Stuart and Ríona Sally Hartman's music continues to strive for the anthemic. This song's inclusive chorus is contrasted by street footage from the more aggressive end of Dublin night-life.
