The best of new and future worldwide music from an Ireland-based music blog.

Tanlines – ‘Brothers’

Thursday, January 12, 2012 - 1 comment

Tanlines - Brothers

Calypso electronic pop band Tanlines were one of my favourite musical discoveries of 2010. Their Settings EP was a constant, ‘Real Life’ is still regularly played at DJ sets and a subsequent collection of material Volume On tied up their recordings so far into a two disc collection.

Great news for me today so. Tanlines will release their debut album Mixed Emotions on True Panther on March 20th in the US. ‘Brothers’ is the first track from it and features the duo’s biggest strength – the combination of bouncing percussion and rhythm with singalong vocals. Love these guys.

Choice Music Prize 2012 shortlist

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - 2 comments

And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs
BellX1 – Bloodless Coup
Cashier No.9 – To The Death of Fun
Lisa Hannigan – Passenger
The Japanese Popstars – Controlling Your Alliegance
Jape – Ocean Of Frequency
Patrick Kelleher & His Cold Dead Hands – Golden Syrup
Pugwash – The Olympus Sound
Tieranniesaur – Tieranniesaur
We Cut Corners – Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards

7 of the albums are on Deezer too.

7/10 for me again. Tickets for the live and awards event in the Olympia Theatre on March 8th are €22.50 plus fees on sale this Friday. The winning act gets €10,000 after the 11 judges spend the night locked away in a room to pick a winner. Those judges are:
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Hear a Lecs Luther alias track produced by Rubberbandits’ Blindboy Boat Club

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - Leave a comment

Lecs Luther
How about this?

The Rubberbandits‘ Blindboy Boat Club hooks up with Lecs Luther for a Lex’s alter-ego Alfie Chapstick freestyle rap called ‘Sally Skag’:

Lecs features in State’s Faces of 2012 while the Rubberbandits actually made five fake songs for me last month.

The Choice Music Prize is announced today….

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - Leave a comment

Ever since I saw Lisa Hannigan perform ‘O Sleep’ with John Smith’s wonderful backing vocals, it’s been in my brain repeating itself over and over for the last month. Above, Lisa performs it with James Vincent McMorrow at the Meteor Choice Prize gigs. Lisa is one of the most likely artists to be picked in today’s Choice Music Prize shortlist which is announced at 3pm on TodayFM.

My predictions:

It’s a difficult task to predict the top 10 albums that 12 different judges will pick, especially if you don’t know who they are but here’s my guess at 2012′s list:

And So I Watch You From Afar – Gangs
BellX1 – Bloodless Coup
Cashier No.9 – To The Death of Fun
Jape – Ocean Of Frequency
Fred – Leaving My Empire
Lisa Hannigan – Passenger
Snow Patrol – Fallen Empires
The Minutes – Marcata
Tieranniesaur – Tieranniesaur
We Cut Corners – Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards

* Albums I considered for the top 10 but could still be a wild card:
Iarla O’ Lionard – Foxlight
Land Lovers – Confidants
Le Galaxie – Laserdisc Nights 2
Royseven – You Say, We Say
Squarehead – Yeah Nothing
The Japanese Popstars – Controlling Your Alliegance
The Kanyu Tree – People Street

You can try it out yourself with this 2011 album list.

Elsewhere: If Nialler9 readers were the judges….

Solar Bears – ‘Alpha People’ featuring Sarah Keep Shelly In Athens

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - Leave a comment


In December I was lucky enough to join Tim and Naomi to witness the recording of one of Donal Dineen’s last ever radio shows for Today FM. Along with Mmoths, Sunken Foal and R.S.A.G. (more info on that night via TPOE), Solar Bears played live and the quality of their new material was really something. Being film nuts, it was as cinematic as debut album She Was Coloured In but more hard-edged and cerebral. New track ‘Alpha People’ is a different kind of vibe altogether to the stuff I remember hearing that night, it’s lighter, floaty and harkens to an older era.

As a side note, when people ask me about Irish bands promoting themselves abroad I always bring up Solar Bears as a fine example of the kind of work that bands can be doing. Today, ‘Alpha People’ debuted on Pitchfork and got in front of a lot more ears than I could ever bring it. That’s down to John Kowalski’s tireless effort and carefully constructed contacts. The dude knows how to make Solar Bears an international band and featuring Greek band Keep Shelly In Athens‘ Sarah P. on vocals is another natural part of that.

The Nialler9 Dublin gig guide (January 10th – 16th)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - Leave a comment

Highlights: Over 50 bands play Whelan’s Ones to Watch festival over four days this week. There’s also First Fortnight gigs and Forward/Slash’s night of electronic producers are the standouts this week.

A list of recommended events taking place over the next seven days in Dublin. All times are 7.30/8pm unless stated. Feel free to recommend gigs not present in the comments below.

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Introducing: Evian Christ

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - Leave a comment

Not even two weeks into 2012 and we’ve already got ourselves a couple of anonymous electronic producers who are making interesting productions. Evian Christ currently exists as only Youtube channel with eight tracks and some shape-based visual artwork although suggestions say it’s the work of Joshua Leary who has a track on an URB mix called ‘Evian Christ’.

Most of the tracks are based around vocal samples from rap tunes, with one in particular Tyga’s ‘Snapbacks Back’ sampled on a few tracks as if Evian Christ is researching its possibilities (or it was the only a-cappella he could get his hands on). ‘Thrown Like Jacks’ also has a Grouper sample. Where last year Clams Casino made spatial instrumentals for rappers that would eventually be categorised as “cloud rap”, Evian Christ is making experimental electronic music using rap sources as a raw material and coming out with similar yet more downtempo sparse style with some post-dubstep and juke house sound references.

It’s very early days to know where this project is going but there’s plenty of material to get lost in as I have been doing over the past week.

Hit play and to hear all 8 tunes uploaded so far:

Download MP3s and get more info…→

Introducing: Faws – anonymous Dublin-based minimal electronic productions

Monday, January 9, 2012 - Leave a comment

Having first appeared on Bandcamp on Christmas Eve, there’s very little information available about Faws, an anonymous Dublin-based male producer but that’s the way it should be at this point, with the music speaking for itself. The starting conversation in musical terms is the Antonym EP and it’s a promising one taking in downtempo, ambient and electronic excursions and twisted vocal samples.

There’s an exploratory feel to proceedings, with most tracks going for a click-clack percussion while minimal bass, meandering synth notes, phone call dialogue (along with Tom Waits saying “I worry primarily about whether there are night clubs in heaven”), dub rhythms and bleeps and creaks push the arangements forward. It’s promising stuff that requires a good few listens to seep in.

The Antonym EP is not for sale at the moment, just for stream via Bandcamp.An impressive opening statement from whomever is behind the project.

More info (but not much) on Facebook and Breaking Tunes.

MMOTHS interview on State

Monday, January 9, 2012 - Leave a comment

State Magazine’s third annual Faces Of the Year series which picks out a selection of new Irish bands to watch kicked off today. There will be 20 artists covered accompanied with original photography from the State team where possible. The week will culminate in a mixtape and a digital magazine version on Friday.

My interview with Jack Colleran aka MMOTHS (all caps and changed from MOTHS due to another band name) went live this morning.

Have a read and check out the other choices coming over the week.