Month: March 2019

Irish art-pop act Æ MAK creates an other-worldly landscape with the release of new single ‘We Have It Right Here’.

Aoife McCann brings her creative visions to life with the eerie, ritualistic rhythms of the dancing troupe enrapturing as the track slowly builds into a swathe of chaotic electronic beats. Laced with McCann’s unique vocal stylings and Daniel McIntyre’s (lullahush) hazy, synthesised production, ‘We Have It Right Here‘ is “about appreciating the simple things, what you have in front of you making you happy”.

“All the anxieties and worries you have over what you think you should be, what you think the world thinks you should be disintegrating because you’re there with the person you love and there are hours left until dawn breaks before those feelings come to life again.”

“I’d been watching a lot of documentaries about cults” Aoife explains. “Welcome to Æ MAK presents ‘We Have It Right Here: A Love Cult’.“

Forming Æ MAK in 2016, McCann has since received a host of UK and international tastemaker support from Earmilk, Nialler9, The Line of Best Fit, BBC 6 Music and Radio X. Her engrossing live performances have resulted in numerous sold-out headline shows, coveted festival slots at The Great Escape, Eurosonic and Latitude, and even caught the attention of Django Django, Warpaint and tune-yards who invited the band on their respective tours.

With each release, Æ MAK continues to blur the boundaries of modern pop music, and having become the first act chosen for Festival Republic’s ‘ReBalance’ programme, the artist has created a soundtrack that transports her dreams into reality.

Ex Saville, front man Ken O’Duffy kicks off his his latest musical endeavor as a solo artist with the first cut from his forthcoming debut LP ‘The Last Night At The Gentleman’s Club’.

‘Where The Water Rushes Grow’ see’s O’Duffy showcasing his well honed skills as a vocalist and songwriter.

Touching on themes of longing and lust O’Duffy’s lyrical candor and atmospheric arrangements embroil the listener in a suspenseful encounter “down where the water rushes grow”.

The single is set for release on March 1st with a launch event happening at Whelans, Dublin on March 2nd.

Ken O’Duffy on his songwriting:

“Normally I write a song and bring it to the band and we would work out an arrangement in rehearsals.

With these songs I worked out my own arrangements, and partly due to design and partly due to my musical limitations, the songs ended up with lot more space which left a more prominent place for the vocals. The first song I recorded for the album was ‘Where The Water Rushes Grow’. I liked the more spacious approach and applied this methodology to the rest of the songs”.

Ken has been making music with various bands (The Experiment/Light a big fire) since the mid-1980s. In the noughties Ken released three critically acclaimed albums with Dublin band Saville, with the last two being released on the legendary Reekus Records. and more recently in 2015 and 2016 he released ‘Songs of Absolution’ and ‘The Autumn House’ with The Citizens (featuring Tosh Flood of The Divine Comedy/Pugwash)

Over the last couple of years Ken has been playing solo gigs, honing the songs which will appear on his album which is due for release in May 2019 entitled ‘The Last Night at the Gentleman’s Club’.

The songs on the album were written and performed by Ken with assistance from Ingmar Kiang(Bob Marley, U2, Damien Dempsey) who recorded and mixed the album at his Hey Nineteen studio in Greystones.

Ken will launch the debut single ‘Where the Water Rushes Grow’ on Saturday March 2^nd upstairs at Whelans.

Ken has also arranged a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the manufacturing of physical copies of ‘The Last Night At The Gentleman’s Club’.

You can check out all the details HERE and please feel free to share the link and/or donate.

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Forthcoming Live dates:

Whelans with very special guest Peter Holidai.
March 2nd, 2019
Tickets available HERE

Promotional Photographs by Bob Dixon.

Multi-platinum singer-songwriter Hozier has today released his much-anticipated new album ‘Wasteland, Baby!’ on Island Records/Rubyworks. The 14 track LP follows Hozier’s 2018 release, Nina Cried Power EP, and is the follow up to the multi-platinum selling, debut self-titled album, Hozier, released in 2014. 

The new album, ‘Wasteland, Baby!’, was recorded between studios in Dublin, London and the US (Chicago, Los Angeles). Co-produced by Hozier, Markus Dravs, Rob Kirwan, and Ariel Rechtshaid, the album’s 14 tracks mark a major development in terms of song writing and subject matter.

It is no small measure of his stature as a songwriter and performer who is intuitively inspired by blues, soul and gospel music that he is joined on the album by era-defining artists such as Mavis Staples (on ‘Nina Cried Power’ – “the spirit of the song draws from the era that Mavis sang the soundtrack for”) and Booker T. Jones on no less than five tracks – ‘Nina Cries Power’, ‘Almost (Sweet Music)’, ‘Movement’, ‘Be’, and ‘Sunlight’.

Current single ‘Almost’ has already notched up over 18 million streams on Spotify since its release in January and has been added to some of the biggest global playlists including Today’s Top Hits and Hot Hits UK.

The artwork for the album was created by Hozier’s mother, the artist Raine Hozier-Byrne, who also created the artwork for his debut album. Using backdrop photographs taken in Loftus Hall, Co. Wexford, the image was photographed and painted in Raine’s studio in Wicklow. For a  further look into the making of the artwork, watch the Behind The Album Cover video here.

Hozier first rose to prominence following the release of his globally successful, triple platinum single ‘Take Me To Church’. The track was nominated for ‘Song Of The Year’ at the 2015 Grammy Awards, won ‘Song Of The Year’ at the 2015 Ivor Novello Awards, won ‘Song Of The Year’ at the 2015 BBC Music Awards and won ‘Top Rock Song’ at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, where Hozier also won ‘Top Rock Artist’. ‘Take Me To Church’ has sold 2.23 million copies in the UK to date. Hozier also saw great success with ‘Someone New’, which went gold and ‘Cherry Wine’ and ‘From Eden’ both being certified silver.

‘Wasteland, Baby!’ is the follow up to Hozier’s critically acclaimed self–titled debut album, which has now amassed over 2.1 billion streams on Spotify alone, while his total, global Spotify Playlist reach currently sits at over 71 million. The album has sold over 155 thousand copies in Ireland, awarding it a staggering x10 times platinum certification, while the record has sold 4 million copies worldwide.

‘Wasteland, Baby!’, a first-class collection of songs that blend intimacy and inspiration, desire and frustration, warmth and seduction, is released today through Island Records/Rubyworks.

Hozier plays a headline show at Irish Independent Park in Cork on June 25^th and Belsonic, Belfast on June 27^th. Tickets are available now through www.ticketmaster.ie

Limerick quintet, Fox Jaw, return to form with their brand new single ‘Madeline’, a modern strutting alt-rock groove anthem with hints of a New Romantics past. 

The new single comes accompanied by a full Technicolor audio visual experience shot and directed by the band’s drummer, Shane Serrano. The music video follows the misadventures of a sexual predator and his prey, while paying homage to the cinematic styles or Tarantino and Rodriguez.

Recorded at Ballyhane Studios with engineer Art O’Laoire, mixed by Mike Gavin et Even Audio and Mastered by Richard Dowling at Wav Mastering (David Bowie, Foo Fighters, Interpol).

Once described as ‘a modern band with an old soul’, Fox Jaw have a swaggering trend-shaking growl, that always keeps things sweet and melodic with an honest collection of dark pop songs. With hundreds of shows under their belts, 10 Singles, 5 Vinyls Releases, 2 Studio Albums, 2 EPs, 1 Live Album, countless festival appearances, TV appearances, Magazine Covers, Music Video Awards, Album Of The Year Awards, and only one flat tyre … Fox Jaw have been bringing their signature brand of rock and roll to audiences across Europe & North America for the last 12 years.

2014 saw the release of their 2nd studio album ‘Ghost’s Parade’, with an impressive amount of airplay, raising many eyebrows in the music industry, ‘Ghost’s Parade’ is an album in full sonic Technicolor, verifying the bands ability & love for a plethora of genres, above and beyond the pigeonholes many set for them. 

In 2016, following the success of the release of their brooding rock & roll floor fillers ‘Do You Want It All?‘ & ‘Hit It Off’, the band released their 3rd EP ‘Black Light Vignette’ with a flying start both at home and overseas, getting picked up by over 30 college stations in the USA.

Fox Jaw have played such festivals as: Electric Picnic, Indie Week (Canada & Ireland), Castlepalooza, Knockanstockan, Indiependence, Sea Sessions, AranMojo, Hard Working Class Heroes, Glasgowbury, Vantastival, Arthur’s Day & more.

They’ve shared the stage with such acts as: Against Me!, The Strypes, And So I Watch You From Afar, Alabama 3, The Redneck Manifesto, Jape, Hayseed Dixie & many more.

See them Live on their UK & Irish tour;

Fri. Mar 15                  Evil Eye – Liverpool
Sat. Mar 16                 The Criterion – Leicester
Sun Mar 17                 The Slaughtered Lamb – London
Sat. Apr 13                  Record Store Day at Steamboat – Limerick
Sat. Apr 13                  Kasbah Social Club – Limerick (Tickets: https://goo.gl/5uxKwr)
Thurs. Apr 18              Roisín Dubh – Galway (Support to Bitch Falcon / Free Adm)
Sat. Apr 20                  Sin É – Dublin Tickets: https://goo.gl/qDhZCa)

Photo: Aaron Corr

Innovative pop artist Jack Rua is proud to announce his arrival with the March 15th release of his debut single, ‘Scarlet A’. Produced by fellow BIMM Dublin alum tenderhook. and the nationally-lauded Michael Heffernan, ‘Scarlet A’ is dark, sexy and dangerous, harkening to the throbbing arid beats of the 1980s, while retaining a contemporary edge with addictive melodies and alluring vocals. With this release and its accompanying simple, yet visually beautiful video – inspired by the likes of Christine and the Queens and Perfume Genius – Jack Rua sets out to fill the void that exists on the Irish market for a queer dance-pop act who embraces theatricality and excess.

From the pulsating opening bassline to the lyrical content of seduction and adultery, ‘Scarlet A’ is a daring statement that establishes Jack’s intent to differ from the norm and delve into the concealed. ‘Scarlet A’ unapologetically questions the nature of human attraction and monogamy, whilst simultaneously evoking its listener to contemplate modern fascination with superficial things.

Stitched together from elements of glam, dance, folk and theatre, Jack Rua has developed a singular brand of music that can dance across the entire pop spectrum; at once emotionally confessional as well as aloof and enigmatic. Formerly known as Jackal, the David Bowie/Lady Gaga/Prince-influenced Dublin-native has teamed years of theatrical performance, with shows across Dublin (Vicar Street, The Academy, Whelan’s) and New York City (Bowery Electric, Uncle Charlies, The Duplex). A cultivated new act, Jack Rua is now proud to reinvent himself with the release of “Scarlet A”. With plans already in motion to collaborate with more prominent Irish artists, as well as the release of an EP in late 2019/early 2020, Jack Rua is carving a definitive space for himself, and beckons us to dance with him along the way.

IG – https://www.instagram.com/jackruamusic
FB – https://www.facebook.com/jackruamusic
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jackruamusic
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaQaMxvp2dDhfR9kvTXQusw Soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/jackrua

Photo: PureGrand