Month: July 2018

Síomha releases one of her most popular songs, ‘July Red Sky’, in Irish in a beautiful stripped down version, accompanied by just keys and bodhrán. The video was recorded live on the edge of the unmistakable limestone slabs of The Burren in Síomha’s native Co. Clare, with the wild Atlantic way as a stunning backdrop. The warmth of the summer sky is echoed in the jazz and soul infused song, which was inspired by the sight that greeted Síomha as she drove home in the early hours after late night gigs; catching the brilliant reds of the sun rise in her rear view mirror and pausing to watch the colours of day and night bleed together until it was finally bright.

Síomha’s love for her native land and language pour out of her and she is continually inspired by the beautiful and rugged landscape of her native west of Ireland. A fierce proponent and lover of the Irish language, Síomha performs Irish versions of most of her songs. The poetry in her lyrics is not lost due to the beautiful translations by her friend Billy Mag Fhlionn.

Tá leagan Gaeilge álainn de cheann de na hamhráin is clúití atá ag Síomha, ‘July Red Sky’, eisithe aici gan ach tionlacan pianó agus bodhráin leis. Rinneadh taifead ar an fhíseán beo ar imeall na leac aolchloiche so-aitheanta sa Bhoirinn i gContae an Chláir, ceantar dúchais Shíomha. Sa chúlra, tá Slí an Atlantaigh Fhiáin. Teas na spéire samhraidh atá le cloisteáil i snag-cheol agus ceol soul an amhráin. Is í an íomhá sin a bhí mar spreagadh leis an amhrán agus Síomha ag tiomáint na bhaile go luath ar maidin i ndiaidh ceolchoirmeacha na hoíche; ag feiceáil dearg éirí na gréine ina
scáthán cúil agus ag stopadh le dathanna na hoíche agus na maidine a fheiceáil ag rith isteach ina chéile. Tá grá mór ag Síomha dá ceantar dúchais agus don Ghaeilge agus bíonn sí spreagtha go minic ag tírdhreach garbh, álainn iarthar na hÉireann. Tá a croí istigh sa Ghaeilge agus canann Síomha leaganacha Gaeilge den chuid is mó dá hamhráin. Tá filíocht a cuid liricí slán mar gheall ar aistriúcháin ghalánta a carad, Billy Mag Fhlionn.

SÍOMHA will be touring as a special guest for The Olllam on their upcoming Irish tour.
17.07 – GALWAY – Roisin Dubh *FULL BAND*
18.07 – CLIFDEN – Mularkey’s
19.07 – CASTLEBAR – TF Royal
21.07 – CASTLEWELLAN – Soma Festival
22.07 – ENNIS – Lucas’ Bar
26.07 – LIMERICK – Dolan’s *FULL BAND*
27.07 – TRALEE – Ardfert Cathedral
28.07 – CORK – Cyprus Avenue *FULL BAND*
31.07 – DUBLIN – Whelan’s *FULL BAND*
02.08 – NEWBRIDGE – Judge Roy Bean’s
03.08 – CLONAKILTY – DeBarra’s

www.siomhamusic.com

Festival specialists King Kong Company are back with a bang, releasing their latest single ‘My Name is Now’ on July 19^th.. This sultry summer thumper burns with a slow electro skank. A slight departure for a band whose late night thumping festival sets have become the stuff of legend, the intensity on this one is turned down a notch, but the groove is cranked up to 11. The track explores our fascination with legacy. A few souls are capable creating great art, others choose to destroy on a grand scale and some scrawl willies on bathroom walls. This track trawls it all, leaving its own mark in the form of a signature King Kong Company video that delves into a twisted world of cyberpunk voyeurism

Last month the band enhanced their already impressive festival credentials by releasing a mini documentary about their epic 12-hour dash from headlining the Midnight Circus stage at Body&Soul to a main stage slot in Silver Hayes at Glastonbury . With more festival gigs in the U.K. and mainland Europe under their belt this summer, the King Kong legend is starting to spread. 

When KKC play a festival they invariably get called back for a bigger and better slot. The first-time King Kong Company played Electric Picnic it was on the Body&Soul Stage seven years ago. Last year King Kong Company played the Electric Arena, and even though it was 3PM on a Sunday afternoon, and even though Waterford were playing in the All Ireland Hurling Final, 10,000 wonderful lunatics turned up and tore the roof off the place. The band play a headline slot at Indiependence this year, having worked their way up from playing on a tiny mud splattered trailer in the lashing rain seven years ago. 

Not content with dominating festival fields, King Kong Company have brought their sensory assault indoors, selling out venues all over the country. This October they play their biggest headline show to date when they take to the stage in The Olympia Theatre Dublin. Expect another savage summer season from these simian savants, and consider this latest single an entrée. 

21/7 – Townlands Festival – Macroom
4/8 – Indiependence – Mitchelstown
5/8 – Beatyard – Dun Laoghaire
18/08 – Canal Quarter Festival – Tullamore
25/08 – Daytripper – Waterford
Electric Picnic? – Watch This Space
13/10 – The Olympia Theatre – Dublin

Swiss Singer Songwriter Tamara Landolt has been working with Louth-based IMRO member, lyricist, Maurice Byrne. Tamara recently released their collaboration ‘I’ve Got Standards’ in Switzerland and she has now been playlisted on two Swiss radio stations.

Tamara is a classically trained soprano and pop / rock vocalist and has been studying and performing music in Switzerland for over 15 years. She recently decided to change musical direction and write some new songs in different genres.

Back in 2015, Tamara got in touch with Irish lyricist Maurice Byrne. Together, they wrote material over a two year period and finally decided to cut two songs at Steve Fearnley’s ‘Narrow Water Studios’ in Warrenpoint Co Down. The first is this ‘I’ve Got Standards’ and the second is called ‘Dreamers’. Tamara and Maurice now have over ten songs written and the hope is to record a few more of these compositions very soon.

Tamara has visited Ireland a number of times. She said “One of the most amazing experiences here has been pony trekking on the Dingle Peninsula and eating pizza in Dingle’s finest pizzeria – The Blue Zone!” Tamara works full time on her music in Switzerland  and has recorded in Hamburg, Zurich and New York.

Maurice has been writing songs for over fifteen years and is a member of West Coast Songwriters, a California-based songwriter collective. He has written music for cinema and TV in the USA and has had radio play in Ireland, the UK, Lithuania, Denmark, Sweden, and now Switzerland.

You can download ‘I’ve Got Standards’ from your favourite download store and is also it’s available to stream on Spotify.

Tamara’s Website           www.tamaraofficial.com

Maurice’s Website          http://www.maurbyrne.com

Galway singer Ultan Conlon, who has been chosen by Bryan Ferry to play at his Dublin Trinity College gig on July 27, will play a Galway concert along with his band The Night Owls in the Róisín Dubh venue this Friday July 6th to launch his new album ‘Last Days of the Night Owl’ which has been awarded Album of the Week by RTE Radio 1.

2018 has been hugely successful for singer songwriter Ultan Conlon who has toured Ireland and the UK with Eddi Reader, The Stunning and Mary Coughlan. In April the country fell in love with Ultan’s single release ‘The Measure’ which was No 1 on the RTE Radio 1’s airplay chart for four weeks. Ultan Conlon capped off The Measure’s with a full house on his debut Dublin headline concert at Whelan’s Live.

Ahead of his Galway show at the Roisin Dubh on July 6th, Ultan Conlon has released a brand new Summer Mix of his No 1 single ‘The Measure’ which was produced by the Grammy Nominated engineer Chris O’Brien at The Production Suite in Dublin.  The re-release of ’The Measure’ coincides with the announcement of Ultan Conlon’s largest and most high-profile show to date on July 27th when Ultan and The Night Owls will guest with Roxy Music superstar Bryan Ferry at his Trinity College Summer Series Concert in Dublin.

Ultan Conlon’s third studio album ‘Last Days of The Night Owl’ was recorded in Clarinbridge over the winter of 2017. The 12 songs were written on both the west coasts of Ireland and America and the album was mixed in Nashville by the Grammy award winning producer Collin Dupuis who has worked with The Black Keys and Lana Del Ray. The opening track ‘As The Light Gets Low’, was written in Ultan’s studio apartment in Santa Monica, LA. “It came to me in a hurry, one summer evening just off Pico BLVD, within view of the legendary McCabe’s Guitar Store in LA.”

Ultan Conlon has a special ability at capturing the human spirit through his lyrics, which have been honed over almost two decades of writing and performing. The quality of his songwriting is equally matched by his powerful yet fragile voice that critics have likened to the great Roy Orbison.

More recently Ultan Conlon returned to the US as the guest of The Watkins Family Hour, where he performed with Jackson Browne, Shelby Lynne and Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers fame at the famous Largo club in Los Angeles.

Ultan Conlon has also performed duets with Glen Hansard and John Martyn. The latter Scottish folk legend later went on to record one of Ultan’s early songs ‘Really Gone’ from his first album in 2005.

The Mayo band Vickers Vimy are the support band at Ultan Conlon’s gig at the Róisín Dubh Galway on Friday July 6th and Tickets are currently on sale from Ticketmaster outlets and online from Roisindubh.net

Three Ireland has unveiled the first video of ‘Made By Music’, the brand’s new music campaign, celebrating the power of music to unite people and create lasting connections.

The first video in the series is for Jafaris with his powerful song ‘If You Love Me’. “If You Love Me” was directed by New York-based visionary director, Shane Griffin, and centres on two people for whom a song serves as a reminder of their past together. The story of their relationship is told through fragmented memories, and is reignited towards the end of the film, when they meet in the present.

Karl Donnelly, Head of Sponsorship, Three Ireland said, “In a time when Irish music is at its cultural and creative peak we are thrilled to collaborate with some of the country’s most innovative up and coming artists – Jafaris, Saint Sister and Kormac, to create visually arresting music videos for songs which speak to the heart of connections.”

Recognising the importance of making every moment count, Three gives its customers the opportunity to get exclusive presale access to tickets for the biggest concerts, money can’t buy and unique connected experiences at 3Arena as well as Longitude & Electric Picnic.

#MadeByMusic will unveil further videos for songs by Saint Sister and Kormac later this summer.

Watch the video at 3.ie/jafaris and join the conversation on social using #MadeByMusic

‘Categor’y was shot on a whim and location in Casalattico, Italy, by the musician Tony Wright for his VerseChorusVerse project. It plays out like an Italian dream in mountain villages older than Rome.

Tony wasn’t listening to the song as he shot it whilst the locals were enjoying their siestas – this might explain his…”unique”…moves.

The song itself is as summery a pop song as the artist has ever released, building from lo-fi beginnings to a shimmering sun-soaked burst of guitars, drums and uplifting bass.

The lyrics are a meditation on contradictions and the restrictive construct nature of labels in this age of fluidity, masked by the major chord positive nature of the music.

It is the first video release from the latest VerseChorusVerse album – ‘outro’ – released earlier this month on Bandcamp to help fund the pressing of the artists first book.

It is a welcome return to his alt. Rock beginnings. The cover art for the album was taken from this video.

A general digital release will follow on August 3rd on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon etc

A theatre tour of Ireland will be announced for the winter in support of the album and book.

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Released on 4th July, ‘Electric Light’ is the first release of 2018 by Electronic Dublin based producer Will de Burca. A quick follow up to last years ‘Embedded’ album, De Búrca has used elements of Tycho, Depeche Mode, Jan Hammer (Miami Vice) with a lead synth that is reminiscent to early 1980’s Duran Duran.

The art direction is heavily Dublin based with artwork taken on the Samuel Beckett Bridge and video which was shot in Clontarf depicts the Dublin Docklands. A simple but engaging video that many Dubliners look back and forth at daily.

f: facebook.com/willdeburcamusic
I: @willdeburca
t: @WdeBurca