Winter Aid new single 'Silk' released & album announcement

Shane Culloty, aka Winter Aid, has shared the first single ‘Silk’ from the upcoming album Pull the Sky Inside which we be released May 17th. An accompanying video for ‘Silk’ by Dermot Lynskey was also released.

Discussing “Silk”, Culloty offers, “This song is musically one of the happiest I've ever written, but lyrically it's bitter. It was written in response to the feeling of having made it through 2020 - which is fading in memory now, but was fresh and raw at the time - and having seen the tumult and hope and passion, and brief flames of political optimism give way to a reassertion of the status quo.

Living in the Bay Area it seemed like it was all being invented in front of me, from political rallies in Richmond to canvassing in the Mission, giving way to the summer's marches against police violence and eventually, the election. I didn't set out to write a song about that feeling, but it made its way into the album nonetheless.”  You can listen now to ‘Silk’ on all streaming platforms.

Winter Aid releases new EP 'Inner Sunset'

San Francisco-based, Irish songwriter Shane Culloty, aka Winter Aid, returns with his first new record in five years, Inner Sunset EP.   The EP follows The Wisp Sings: 10th Anniversary Edition  EP/Vinyl which included a re-release of his gorgeous song 'The Wisp Sings', which has, since its initial release, generated over 300 million streams across all platforms.

Inner Sunset is a largely instrumental affair, with the streets, sounds, and scenery of Culloty’s adopted new home inspiring the four tracks, and filtering into the recordings themselves. Two songs, ”Interlude for Shankill” and “Dusk", date back to life back home in Ireland. Throughout the EP’s six laidback tracks, these landscapes dictate the feel of material, providing both a sense of closure and a new beginning. A new Winter Aid album will be released later this year.

Katie Kim, The Shaker Hymn & Diffly featured in the new TV series 'The Gone'

Music from Katie Kim, The Shaker Hymn & Diffly can be heard in the new TV series ‘The Gone’. The series is an Irish/New Zealand production and focuses on an Irish detective who teams up with a Kiwi cop to find an Irish couple who have vanished from a rural New Zealand town. The pair have to contend with a community's growing disquiet that the disappearances may be linked to a series of historical murders. The series has aired on TVNZ and is set to air on RTE.

Autre Monde release new album 'Sensitive Assignments'

Autre Monde have announced the release of their second album, Sensitive Assignments. The album will be available on 12” vinyl and online through the usual outlets from 15th September and to accompany the album release, they will play a number of dates across Ireland in September and October. You can grab a copy of the album on bandcamp here

M Stevens and the Ghasts release latest single 'In the Garden'

‘In The Garden’ is the second single from the forthcoming album ‘Birds’ by M Stevens & The Ghasts. M Stevens & The Ghasts are an indie-folk from Dublin and led by songwriter Mike Stevens. Stevens has previously worked with a string of Irish alt folk & indie pop bands like Settler, Groom, Lie Ins and Skelocrats and was also co-founder of celebrated indie collective Popical Island. The Ghasts are Mark Jordan (Seabeasts, Si Schroeder, Large Mound, Spook of the 13th Lock, The Run Ons), Hugh McCabe (Large Mound, Spook of the 13th Lock, Desert Aces), Ciaran Canavan (Land Lovers) and Donagh O'Brien (A Ritual Sea, Sweet Jane). ‘Birds’ will be released on November 17th.

Music from New Valley Wolves, Aoife Underwater, James Darkin & Autre Monde featured in 'Professionals'

The action series Professionals, starring Brendan Fraser and Tom Welling had its US premiere on the CW network. The series which follows billionaire Peter Swann (Fraser) and experienced professional Vincent Corbo (Welling) includes music from New Valley Wolves, Aoife Underwater, Milky Teeth, Ódú, James Darkin and Autre Monde.

Pádraig Cooney releases his debut album 'Centuries of Learning'

Pádraig Cooney has been writing and performing in Dublin-based bands for over a decade, from Land Lovers through Skelocrats to Autre Monde. He was a founder member of the Popical Island Collective, which ran a label, venue and other initiatives through the 2010s. He is now releasing material under his own name.

‘Centuries of Learning’ is Pádraig's debut album. It is a distillation of his creative endeavours over several years writing, playing and singing in Dublin’s alt-pop underground, and an attempt to approach a record, 13 years after the fact.  The songs are restricted to synths, guitar and drum machine, with a mixture of premeditation and improvisation, make the most complete one-person pop suite that his abilities would allow at that time.

The title 'Centuries of Learning' is taken from the song Space, where in context it refers to the accumulation of education, technical expertise and cultural knowledge put by Europeans to the service of violent exploitation of the rest of the planet. However, as the album title, it says: "I've been at this long enough, here's what I have learned".

Katie Kim releases her new album 'Hour of the Ox'

Katie Kim has released her sixth and final album ‘Hour of the Ox’. The album marks the long awaited return of the singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. The Dublin based artist enters a new epoch with this raring release. A sonically opulent and majestic new territory, written and recorded while in the process of moving to New York and subsequently mixed after being forced back to Ireland during a global pandemic.

‘Hour of the Ox’ tells a story of longing and desperation for something connected. An incompatible, disparate but devoted view of the world, told through lush strings, an orchestra of synthesizers, up front vocals and live minimalist drums.

Produced, arranged and recorded by Katie Kim and long-time collaborator John “Spud” Murphy (Black Midi / Caroline / Lankum) across Dublin, the sprawling Faithlegg countryside and New York, this collaboration between the two, may be their most ambitious.