ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Switzerland - Long Gone
Indie label Popical Island may not have the momentum it once had, but the collective is very much active as this new album from Dublin four-piece indie-rockers shows. Formed from members of related bands such as Hello Moon, Land Lovers, No Monster Club and Paddy Hanna, Long Gone is a jangly guitar album in thrall to American indie past (R.E.M and The Byrds are references). The band say each song is "about people (real and imaginary) who have made a change in their lives and faced the consequences".
SONGS OF THE WEEK
Rosie Carney - Awake Me
Donegal singer-songwriter Rosie Carney recently shared her expressions with depression and anorexia, brought on by some serious issues in her childhood. That Carney seems to be moving forward from that is a positive thing. Even more impressive is that she's managing to make some very resonant art out of her experiences.
Marlene Enright - 123
There's a touch of class in the music of Marlene Enright. The Cork singer's new song 123 walks to its own beat. Enright's second album Placemats and Second Cuts drops on March 24th along with details of an Irish tour.
Comrade Hat - Go To Waste
Derry's Neil Burns has been making music that has increasingly large folds between jazz, electronic and classic singer-songwriter pop. Burns' last single Old Amsterdam sounded like George Michael making psychedelia and this new song harks sounds like something concocted in a studio in California in the late 1970s.
NC Grey - Choose Me
This Irish-based British-Nigerian singer-songwriter is versed in classic soul and counts Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Jill Scott as influences. You can hear the result on the jazzy pop track Choose Me.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK:
Participant - You Better
Director: Bob Gallagher
Stephen Tiernan is a Dublin songwriter and producer known for his fragile atmospheric songs. Taken from recent EP Content, this new video by Bob Gallagher (Saint Sister, Girl Band) explores intimacy, isolation and privacy through the eyes of a male prostitute. Participant plays Servant Jazz Quarters in London on March 1st.
NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Session Motts
Sporting the best new band name since you last had a gaff party, Session Motts are a band in thrall to the eighties: specifically Magazine, New Order, Microdisney and Aztec Camera. The band are a duo named Ingmar Kiang and Keeley Moss and their brilliantly titled dreamy single Chip Shop Fights is politer than it suggests.
