SONGS OF THE WEEK
This Side Up – True School
Smartly keeping their Sligo accents intact, this North West rap group released an EP with its title
3035
, taken from the number of miles from their hometown to New York, the birthplace of hip-hop. Clearly inspired by the likes of Jurassic 5, The Roots and The Beastie Boys (as
True School
lays out), Myster-E, Shaool and DJ Noone throw it back with a jazzy old-school homage to their heroes.
Seamus Fogarty – Ducks & Drakes
The Mayo man with a London address, Fogarty released a fine debut album three years ago called
God Damn You Mountain
. A new EP called
Ducks & Drakes
is out in September, and will features this title track that is at once, meditative and playful; folk, trad and electronic. Look out for some Irish dates in August in Kilkenny, Cork and Wexford supporting Lisa O'Neill.
Rejjie Snow – All Around The World
Having first appeared as Lecs Luther with an accent that tended to adopt an American rap style, Rejjie Snow is now sounding fully comfortable with his Dublin brogue. All Around The World is his latest track, a breezy summery about a girl who prompts Rejjie to declare:"I'd sail a thousand seas and paint the ocean blue, girl / Just for you."
Terriers – Believing The Crystal
The Irish duo recently won a mentorship with revered electronic producer Leon Vincent where Peter Ward and Ronan Downing got to move into his Berlin studio and sink deeper into their craft.
Believing The Crystal
suggests the pair learned plenty, as the song masters thumping club dynamics yet remains equally adept at creating a spaced-out hypnotic rhythm to lend your ears to.
NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Bleeding Heart Pigeons
This Limerick young trio first came to attention via a surge of interest from UK A&R after the band, who had been together five years and were still in their teens began to push out their ambitious art-rock music. A debut EP which somewhat uncomfortably took inspiration from the Columbine massacre followed – the dense music combined with heavy subject matter further marked the band out as a unique prospect. The news of a new EP out in August on AMF Records and a track called
A Hallucination
suggests that ambition is still very much intact but it has been honed into something perhaps more powerful.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Lethal Dialect – New Dublin Saunter
(Director: Terry McMahon)
“Got off the flight from Boston, tired yawning, first port of call my hometown, cloaked in smog and rain, waterfall, asphalt, cobblestones, polluted river, bikes and trollies thrown…”
Songs made for specific campaigns, political or advertorial or otherwise, can tend to be a bit on the nose.
New Dublin Saunter
though, written for Dublin's bid to be European capital of culture in 2020, takes its inspiration from the old Dublin folk song
Dublin Saunter
, but updates it for a new generation confidently looking forward. Director Terry McMahon's (
Patrick's Day
) accompanying video suggests the underlying grit in the city yet juxtaposes it with a tale of love which was made on the streets of Dublin.
