Month: October 2012

The Mandolas are a 4-piece folk/pop group based in Cork, Ireland. The band make use of a wide range of acoustic instruments (mandolin, mandola, acoustic guitar, bouzuki, banjo and viola) as well as incorporating lavish 4-part harmonies into their music. The Mandolas perform original material and combine Irish and English folk traditions with a unique blend of contemporary pop.

The group consists of Michael Grace (Kilkenny), Colm Hayes (Cork), and brothers Paddy & Dorian Kelly (West Cork/ originally hailing from Yorkshire). Drawing inspiration from the likes of Planxty, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Fleet Foxes, The Mandolas unique folk stylings combine a wide array of musical influences to create a fresh, warm sound. In the last year, The Mandolas have been steadily making a name for themselves nationally, and have had the privilege of playing alongside the likes of Paul Brady, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Mike Hanrahan, Duke Special & Neil Hannon.

The Mandolas have recently released their debut EP, ‘My Greatest Day’  and have recently finished a tour of the country promoting the release. The EP Launch Tour saw the group play established venues such as Cyprus Avenue (Cork), De Barras (West Cork), Doyles (Dublin), McCarthys Bar (Dingle), The Brewery Lane Theatre (Carrick-on-suir), The Sky & The Ground (Wexford) The White Horse Sessions (Kenny’s, Lahinch) along with many more. (Details of which can be found on www.themandolas.com.)

The Mandolas have recently recorded a new single with Christian Best entitled “Marianne” which will be released for digital download on itunes on Friday November 9th. The band have recently embarked on an extensive 16-date Irish tour and are likely to be performing at a venue near you!

“The combination of traditional sounding songs and four male singers harmonising made them sound like an Irish version of The Beatles” 
-Evening Echo

“there’s nary a sniff of a rhythm section or electric instrumentation, yet this quartet play with a fierce intuition that over-rides the need for either. Inevitably, Irish folk comparisons with the fiery likes of Luke Kelly will be bandied around in future, but these boys are equally convincing whether attacking dextrous jigs and reels, Dave Swarbrick-style workouts or punchy Folk-Pop numbers” 
”I’d seriously suggest you see them while you can still see the whites of their eyes. You don’t need to be a genius to realise they’ll not stay working the small venue circuit for too much longer.”

“THE MANDOLAS are one of the most promising new outfits on the Irish circuit at present.” 
 – www.whisperinandhollerin.com

“Their four-part harmonies are utterly flawless and will set your senses alight as they flow through their repertoire with charm and ease. Each member is a character in their own right, sharing stories and laughter between songs which touch on ordinary themes experienced by all facets of society, regardless of age or geography. “…there are far too many veins of inspiration to count in this pulsating heart of Irish folk music.” –  cork.studenty.me

“Four-piece, timeless harmonies gliding in and out of an ancient sound, conjured by acoustic guitars, mandolins, banjos, bouzoukis, violas and – of course – a mandola.” -The G-man World

www.themandolas.com

Villagers are previewing ‘Passing a Message’, a track from their forthcoming album, {Awayland}, with an accompanying lyric-based video directed by Billy Pilgrim. 

{Awayland} is the much anticipated follow-up to Villagers’ Mercury Award-nominated and Ivor Novello-winning debut, Becoming a Jackal. Released on 11th January 2013, {Awayland} can be pre-ordered HERE. http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/albums/21-09-12/awayland/  

Villagers are currently on a UK and European tour with Grizzly Bear, and played a one-off headline show at the Borderline in London last week which earned them a 5* live review in the Independent – “as tonight progresses, it is clear that {Awayland} will be a very special album indeed”.

The band play two headline shows in Ireland next month (including a sold-out show in Dublin) and will be in the UK for a headline tour next February.

Tour Dates
Sunday 11th November – Blackbox, Belfast
Tuesday 13th November – Whelans, Dublin (sold-out)
Thursday 21st March – Olympia, Dublin (on-sale now)

‘Passing a Message’ is available digitally (RUG505D) now HERE <https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/passing-a-message-single/id570741519>

Featuring Danielle de Niese, Nicola Benedetti and Nigel Hitchcock and Released on Decca  

Golden Globe-nominated composer Brian Byrne has written a love letter for the last great walled city in Ireland.  Tales From the Walled City is a complete symphonic suite with eight short movements, written from the point of view of the Great Walls of Derry.   Featuring The RTÉ Concert Orchestra, violinist Nicola Benedetti and soprano Danielle de Niese, Tales From the Walled City is due to be released by Decca on November 9^th

The work was a gift from Brian to the City of Derry in 2008, in celebration of its jazz and big band festival, but while his original intention was to write a four-minute jazz piece, his creative journey took him on a different path and resulted in a fully symphonic suite of eight short movements, some containing no jazz elements whatsoever. Byrne explains, ‘If the Walls could somehow speak, they would have witnessed incredible stories and music over their long and sometimes troubled history.’  The movement titles capture a flavour of the piece: If the Walls Could Speak, Gossip at Tillie’s, The Cannon Speak, Children Play Outside St Columb’s Cathedral, A City Divided, A Love Divided, The Port of Derry and A City at Peace.

Complementing The Derry Suite, the three others pieces on the album have their own individual stories, and stand in musical contrast to heavier orchestrations of the suite.  Each features a star performer as soloist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra: soprano Danielle de Niese, saxophonist Nigel Hitchcock and violinist Nicola Benedetti. Shall I Compare Thee, featuring Danielle de Niese, is based on William Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 18, while Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra features a more modern sound, with Nigel Hitchcock.

Lament for the Fallen, with Nicola Benedetti, is perhaps the most personal piece on the album. Brian Byrne wanted to end the album with something simple, heartfelt and close to home, and this Lament had two inspirations. The first is that Ryan Tubridy asked him to write a piece in commemoration of the Irish Famine. The second is the recent loss of Brian’s father Jim Byrne, his biggest musical influence, biggest critic and biggest fan, to whom the album is dedicated.

This year continues to be an incredibly successful one for Navan native Brian Byrne, rewarding his move to Los Angeles in 2003 to develop his career. His music for Albert Nobbs has just won two awards at the highly prestigious World Soundtrack Awards 2012, the results of which were announced at the closing night of Ghent International Film Festival on October 20^th. Recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, the sound track has also earned him a Golden Globe nomination and a Satellite Award for Best Original Song (Lay Your Head Down, lyrics Glenn Close, performed by Sinead O’Connor) and won him his second IFTA Award for Original Score.

Adding further to the momentum, the new Barbra Streisand album features a song that Brian wrote, arranged and conducted with song-writing legends Alan and Marilyn Bergman, and his score to Orlando Bloom film The Good Doctor has won praise from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety for its subtlety and romanticism. He is also currently engaged in writing the music for the new Riverdance show, entitled Heartbeat of Home.

The album Tales from the Walled City continues Brian Byrne’s long and fruitful association with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, as composer, arranger and conductor. As well as numerous successful live performances together, other recordings include Byrne’s The Island and his arrangement of the Late Late Show theme in 2009, when Ryan Tubridy took over as host. In the liner notes for this album, he thanks ‘the wonderful musicians and friends that make up the incredibly versatile and talented RTÉ Concert Orchestra’.

Brian Byrne has collaborated with such international luminaries as Bono, Barbra Streisand, Katy Perry, Lisa Stansfield, Van Morrison, The Corrs, Sinead O’Connor, Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Ronan Tynan, Luis Miguel, Vince Gill and Gladys Knight, to name a few. He did an orchestral arrangement of Katy Perry’s Fireworks for the Australian Grammys, toured with Diane Warren, arranged a song for Sex and the City 2 and played piano on Liza Minnelli’s cover of Beyoncé’s Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It). His two Irish Film and Television Awards are for his scores to sci-fi comedy Zonad and Albert Nobbs.

 www.brianbyrnecomposer.com

The World Soundtrack Academy announced the winners of the World Soundtrack Awards 2012, at the closing event of the 39th Ghent Film Festival which took place on 20^th October. Alberto Iglesias was chosen as Film Composer of the Year 2012, for his soundtracks for ‘Le Moine’ (‘The Monk’), ‘La Piel Que Habito’ (The Skin I Live In) and ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’. He also went home with the award for Best Original Film Score of the Year for ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’. Brian Byrne received the World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Song Written for Film for ’Lay Your Head Down’ from the film ‘Albert Nobbs’. Byrne also won the Discovery of the Year Award. The Public Choice Award went to Abel Korzeniowski for the film ‘W.E.’. Pino Donaggio received a World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by Mike Stoller.

Both the ceremony and the concert were attended by world renowned composers such as James Newton Howard (‘The Hunger Games’, ‘King Kong’, ‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘The Fugitive’ and ‘Pretty Woman’) Pino Donaggio (‘Carrie’, ‘Dressed To Kill’, ‘Blow Out’, ‘Body Double’, Raising Cain and King’s Speech), and Discovery of the Year 2011 Alex Heffes (The First Grader & The Rite). During and after the ceremony The Brussels Philharmonic performed music by various composers.

Dublin based alternative band Fred and Bob are to be featured in the next Riot Grrrl Berlin Compilation scheduled for release as a free download from October 25^th. The track “Lady”, taken from their Anti-Gravity Love EP was selected for inclusion in the fifth instalment of the compilation, entitled Mansplaining on the Dancefloor. All artists featured on the compilation are from bands with at least 50% female membership, and Fred and Bob fly the flag for Ireland in a compilation featuring artists from twenty countries.

The band have also been receiving further interest from abroad with recent news of tracks from the Anti-Gravity Love EP featuring on several college radio stations across the Atlantic, including CHYZ and CFUR in Canada and the award-winning Radio De Paul in Chicago.

Fred and Bob returns to the road in November for a mini-tour across Ireland:

 8 November – Rόisín Dubh, Galway
15 November – Sweeney’s, Dublin

24 November – The Vault, Cavan

The Anti-Gravity Love EP is available for free download from the Fred and Bob bandcamp page.
 

Contrary to what the name may suggest, Fred and Bob is actually a Dublin based, four-piece alternative band consisting of three girls and one boy. The hard working band has played numerous venues and festivals around Dublin and Ireland including typically energetic performances at Electric Picnic 2011 and the inaugural Camden Crawl Dublin 2012. 

Since 2009 Fred and Bob have consistently received strong radio support. The debut single Hex You received airplay on BBC 6 Music, 2FM, Phantom FM and Today FM. The follow up On a Good Day… EP led to a commendation from Jim Carroll (Irish Times), further airplay from Rory McConnell (BBC Radio 1) and a studio session for Dan Hegarty (2FM).

The bands last single, Caramel Back, cemented their position on national radio with widespread airplay on 2FM, Today FM and Phantom FM in Ireland. Growing international interest was also evident with airplay in the UK, Netherlands and the US. 

 
Dan Hegarty (2FM):
“Dublin’s Fred & Bob are not a duo just in case you’re wondering. They do however have a habit of writing the kind of songs that The Breeders, Sleater Kinney and Veruca Salt would have given their eye teeth for during the 90s! It’s not all retrospective though, these guys and girls have an energy that is so infectious.”

AU Magazine:
“Infectious and punchy in all the right places, the four short tracks hint at great things to come for the band over a full-length studio release.”

Across the Line (BBC Radio Ulster):
“Seemingly on the road to carving out their own punchy brand of mildly anthemic, instantly memorable rock.”

State Magazine:
“Another short, sharp and snappy example of their 90s influenced alternative rock”

Chew Your Own Fat Blog:
“If you love The Pixies, and that whole alternative vibe, then the only excuse you have for not owning this EP is that you’re mentally challenged. I would turn tricks to fund an Albini recorded album by this band.”

Paddy Casey returns with his fourth album The Secret Life Of on November 9th. Recorded, produced and mixed at his home by Paddy and Pat Donne. this will be Paddy’s first album in five years.

To coincide with the album release, Paddy will be playing The Olympia, Dublin on Thursday 15th November with the Dublin Gospel Choir.

The full tracklist for The Secret Life Of is:

1. There Is A Light / 2. Rise and Shine / 3. The Love Harmonica / 4. Show Me Yours / 5. This Ain’t Love / 6. Wait / 7. That’s Just The Way It Goes / 8. Tell Her / 9. Light Song / 10. It’s Really Up To You / 11. Close Your Eyes

You can check out the new single, It’s Really Up To You, below.

 http://paddycasey.ie