Music

New Irish Music: Solar Bears and Enemies call it a day

Nialler9 rounds up this week's new music from artists around the country, including Meltybrains?, Windings, REWS, Talos and Basciville

Niall Byrne
Fri Oct 7 2016 - 13:00

Songs of the week

Meltybrains? – Know My Name
Ireland's finest ebullient experimentalists return with a diptych. Part one is an ambient dub track while part two is an electronic freakout that is reminiscent of the Super Furry Animals. Know their name. A new EP Kiss Yourself is out in November.

Shauna Tohill and Collette Williams of REWS. Photograph: Rosie Powell

Solar Bears – After Yesteryear
The cinematic electronic duo who released three albums of music on labels like Planet Mu and Sunday Best, and drew influence from ambient, krautrock and psychedelia have called it a day after eight years. They parted with an instrumental track that encapsulates their deft touch with a somnambulist arrangement of synths, guitar and a resigned fadeout.  Farewell.

Auxiliary Phoenix – Bin Bein Bizzy
James Strain is a producer making electronic music with a hip-hop vein, drawing from jazz, turntablism and sampling. Live, the music is performed by a quartet jazz-style. This new single has head-nodding properties and comes with two fine remixes by Mattwizard and D.O.T.

Enemies - Itsallwaves
Another Irish band calling it a day? Wicklow band Enemies have recounted how they have hit some high highs on tour in the US and some low lows with the recording of their third album Valuables. The creation of the album was fraught with difficulties and expectations. "Writing music for other people is a destructive affair," is how they put it. Once they decided to dissolve the band, the album they truly wanted to make came to them. The album arrives on December 9th and they say their bittersweet goodbye on December 18th in Vicar Street.

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REWS – Miss You In The Dark
Shauna Tohill and Collette Williams' indie-pop music continues to find audiences with a recent show at Reeperbhan Showcase Festival in Hamburg packed to capacity and lot of UK radio play.

Release of the week

Windings – Be Honest And Fear Not
"I tried to throw a plastic bottle at the singer of the Frames," begins Boring the second track on Windings new album, thus becoming the second Irish band in recent memory to have a go and Hansard and company (Girl Band titled a short frenzied song Heckle The Frames) . "I was going through a hard time, thought he might've been to blame," singer Steve Ryan sings in his defence.

Since 2012, the Limerick band have expanded their music into a split LP with Land Lovers and some dour but superb once-off singles. Stray Dogs, one of those singles, anchors this album with some caustic regret. Be Honest And Fear Not is occasionally morbid - "When it comes to meeting new friends / try not to think of it as making up numbers for your funeral," goes opener Ambivalence Blues, but the undercurrent of the album feels like a search for home truths, wrapped up in an album of rock music that ably moves between quiet reflection, garage-spiked tunes and mid-tempo guitar band arrangements.

New artist of the week

Hard Working Class Heroes pick

Basciville
It's always good to see a band show a bit of restraint in terms of what they put out into the world. Wexford brothers Cillian and Lorcan Byrne have been taking their time releasing new music, preferring to perform live sporadically. There's a sense that the duo are cultivating interest from an industry that recognises a similarity between their music and one named Hozier. Vocally there's certainly a similarity but new song Sweetheart Rodeo also nods towards the likes of Bell X1 in tone. Catch them at Hard Working Class Heroes tonight, Friday 7th, in The Workmans Club at 11:10pm.

Hard Working Class Heroes is a new music festival taking place from October 6-8 in Dublin city with over 100 live acts playing in seven venues. See hwch.net for tickets.

Video of the week

Talos - Reborn
Directed by Feel Good Lost
Stephanie Dufresne and Conor Donelan nail the motion and emotional movement in this new video for the Cork band Talos. Director Brendan Canty explains, "this film explores the dimensions and emotional complexities of an abusive relationship. By separating the two characters one gets a better sense of each individuals story; for the victim it was about capturing her fear, anger and frustration, and for him we needed to show his sadness and total self loathing as well as his anger and remorse."