SONGS OF THE WEEK
Funeral Suits - Tree Of Life
It's been four years since the Dublin band released
Lily Of The Valley
, their debut album that propelled them on tours around Europe. With
Tree Of Life
, there are only imprints of their former selves. Much less melodic indie than before, the song mines influences such as Peter Gabriel and Tears For Fears for an industrious 1980s pop sound.
Mossy Nolan - Hitting Rocks
Falling between trad, folk and singer-songwriter, Mossy Nolan is clearly a musician of Irish stock.
Hitting Rocks
, the lead track from a long overdue new EP,
The Exile,
is the sound of an artist reared on the phrasing of trad music and the use of a bouzouki yet other sources seep in.
Jennifer Evans - Bakkos
For pure ambition, there's not many reaching the levels of Jennifer Evans' current track. The Dublin singer-songwriter, now living in London has progressed from jazz-folk to dissonant experimental post-rock. In the author's words, the song “is a tale about the narrator passing an internal self-judgment on their own indulgence in a imaginary Bacchanalian court, gaining no comfort, perhaps as her own indulgence is an escape from pain.”
Hvmmingbyrd - Out of My Head
Formerly a five-piece, the newly reformed Hvmmingbyrd as a duo of Deborah Byrne and Suzette Das showcase elements of their harmony folk past on their new single alongside nuanced looped production.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
DIE HEXEN - Siamese
Directed/Produced/Edited By - DIE HEXEN
A self-directed video about a dark premonition, this is intriguing black magic-edged stuff from a Belfast-based A/V artist.
Siamese
is described as “a ceremonial, magic audio-visual piece, created in response to a visually powerful, mutual lucid and reoccurring dream which is still happening amongst two very close friends. A mutual vision where two female friends would lure each other - or be led - by an unexplained force into a burning forest which would then engulf them into flames.”
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Rusangano Family - Let The Dead Bury The Dead
The Limerick trio MynameisjOhn, MuRli and God Knows have been blazing a hot trail through Irish music since appearing three years ago. What they offer is unique in its well-roundedness: hip-hop productions made by experienced producer MynameisjOhn with inspirations in soul, grime, electronica and Afrobeat; two Irish-African MCs addressing their experiences and issues with a realist gusto. Match that with a furiously frenetic live set and you've got one of the best groups in the country.
The band's second album
Let The Dead Bury The Dead
further confirms it. There's plenty of heart and soul in the lyrics, the exploration and embracing of their identities between two cultural polarities. As a result God Knows and MuRli convey what it's really like for two emigrants living in Ireland. MynameisjOhn's production is razor-sharp, employing Afrobeat rhythms on the opening track
Kierkegaard
, bass-heavy soul on
Lights Out
and
Shangaan
electro-style BPMs on
Soul Food
. You can read Jim Carroll's full album review
.
NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Fangclub
The Dublin rock band Fangclub signed to the local wing of Universal Music last year and they've clearly since been refining their sound with an impressive economy if their debut single is anything to go by.
Bullet Head
spends all of 123 seconds blasting your skull with a bludgeoning grunge rock riff that'll make you want to hit repeat. That's good for the music streaming pennies. Smart lads.
