Author: Press Officer

Named after the collectable Japanese toy, Tiny Magnetic Pets from Dublin, are unusual on the current Irish music scene. Rather than be influenced by singer/songwriters or indie rock, the inspiration behind their music comes from Bowie’s Berlin period, 70’s krautrock and early disco, with a good measure of 80’s synthpop thrown into the mix. With the quintessentially pop vocal delivery of Paula Gilmer, it could be said that Tiny Magnetic Pets operate in uncharted musical water, somewhere between Kylie and Kluster.

Their debut on Happy Robots Records follows 2009’s debut album ‘Return of The Tiny Magnetic Pets’ and two critically acclaimed EPs in ‘Stalingrad’ and ‘The NATO Alphabet’.

The band have accrued strong support for their blend of electronic European pop. Ex-Visage member and founder of the Blitz club, Rusty Egan, has been an enthusiastic champion with a remix of their track ‘Control Me’. Another fan is Andy McCluskey from OMD who in 2016 recommended the band “for all lovers of distinctive electronic music”. After opening for NEU! legend Michael Rother at the Electri-City festival in Düsseldorf, they played a blistering show which led to them opening for ex-Kraftwerk member, Wolfgang Flür. That show was a defining moment for Tiny Magnetic Pets, leading to two collaborations with the technopop legend on this new album.

“Deluxe/Debris” is a brilliant encapsulation of what they do best. Drifting effortlessly between blasts of perfect pop with songs like ‘Guiding Light’ to ten minute epics such as live favourite, ‘Semaphore’ with its krautrock beat and experimental electronic excursions. ‘Cold War Neon’ is a moody suspenseful instrumental that in a perfect world would soundtrack series two of cold war thriller Deutschland 83. Never afraid to experiment, there are two versions of ‘Here comes the noise’, part one is atmospheric and reflective in a David Bowie Berlin-period way, whereas part two is like an infectious Pet Shop Boys hit sung by an exuberant Sarah Cracknell. On top of this are the two collaborations with Wolfgang Flür ‘Radio On’ and ‘Never Alone’ both of which give a Germanic seal of approval to the Irish trio’s daring electronic excursions.

With each track seguing into one another, like side two of Abbey Road or Oxygene, and without ruthlessly pushing all the hits to the start of the record for the sake of Spotify streams, “Deluxe/Debris” harks back to a period when albums were listened to from start to finish. Yet it’s breezy, optimistic take on the electronic pop sound, is both reassuringly familiar and effortlessly fresh. “Deluxe/Debris” is the perfect soundtrack for complicated times.

‘Deluxe/Debris’ is the tenth release on Happy Robots Records and is available to order from www.happyrobots.co.uk

12″ vinyl LP /  Digital
Vinyl limited to 300 copies
Available online via Happy Robots or available in stores, distributed exclusively by Cargo Records
Released 18 August 2017​

Introducing for the first time Dublin born female solo artist, C H I R P Y. An Irish folk, alt-pop, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

Her debut 6 track taster EP ‘Real Life’ will hit iTunes on 27 June 2017. This release has most of her contemporaries curious. Born Rebecca Shannon, she has been around Dublin on the Irish music scene for the past 10 years performing most notably with Anuna (where the likes of Julie Feeney and Hozier started). She has toured Ireland, the UK, Europe, the US and Asia as a singer and is featured on various recordings and television specials in the US and Australia. A former diamond grader, Chirpy recorded, produced and mixed all six tracks here in Dublin before sending the final finishes off to UK based Pete Maher (U2, The Rolling Stones, The Killers) for mastering.

The title track ‘Real Life’ is a classic lively summer tune with the potential to re-introduce much loved and familiar classical music elements into a fresh, raw, new sound, with the atmosphere of a live performance and a clear message. ‘The Sister’ paints a sharp image drawing on country and folk elements with text from the Irish poet Francis Ledwidge, whose centenary will take place on 31 July 2017. ‘Heavy Hearted’, ‘Nowhere Land’, ‘I Wish It Was My Home’ and ‘Tomorrow’ are perfect examples of maintaining the raw elements to any musical genre that make it human again. Chirpy cites many influences across popular, classical, heavy metal, blues and folk, yet manages to package each song into her own unique experience. Her style has more recently been compared to a broad range of artists including: Fleet Foxes, Sinead O’Connor, Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young.

Chirpy’s debut self-titled album is being finalised over the coming weeks for a mid-November release with live dates to be announced soon.

Last week in Waterford City Hall, Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin Vickers along with Mayor of Waterford District, John Hearne, launched a newly Irish-written song, The Coast of Labrador, to mark this year’s CANADA 150, commemorating the 150^th year of the Confederation of Canada. The Coast of Labrador is the work of internationally renowned songwriter, Brendan Graham, and Tipperary composer, Denis Carey. The song was given its premiere performance by Irish singer, Seán Keane in an event organised by Waterford Civic Trust, in association with Waterford City and County Council.

The Coast of Labrador is set during the nineteenth-century, a period of extensive emigration to Labrador, Newfoundland and the eastern shores of Canada from the South East of Ireland. It tells the story of a young Waterford fisherman who emigrates to Labrador, finding a new life there with a local Inuit girl.  He brings with him his sliotar and hurling stick and teaches his son to play ‘Hurling on Ice’, the forerunner to ‘Hockey on Ice’.

The song is a reminder of the long historical links between Ireland’s South Eastern shore and and Canada’s Eastern shore based on commercial activities which were well established by the end of the Eighteenth Century. Between February and March of each year, ships from the ports of south-west England heading for the rich cod fisheries of Newfoundland arrived at Waterford to take on supplies and passengers. Many people from the South East went to Newfoundland (Talamh an Éisc) in search of employment. Such was their impact that in 1842 Newfoundland was called ‘Transatlantic Ireland’, with one observer stating that ‘Newfoundland is merely Waterford parted from the sea’.

Songwriter Graham describes The Coast of Labrador, as ‘a further acknowledgement of the great contribution of the peoples of the Déise area to the growth of their adopted country of Canada and the strong historical and cultural connections between the South East of Ireland, and Newfoundland and Labrador’.

The Coast of Labrador by Seán Keane will be available on iTunes at the end of June.

Date: Monday 3rd July
Time: 1.00pm – 4:00pm
Location: IMRO, Copyright House, Pembroke Row, Dublin 2, D02 HW59
Bookings: (FREE event – Booking essential) events@nullimro.ie

This seminar will cover the role of traditional music media – in print, online and broadcast – in building industry profile for new talent, and getting music to a more mainstream audience…

• The music press and music in the press – in print and online.• Current trends in music radio and TV.
• Engaging journalists, editors, heads of music and DJs.
• The traditional music marketing and PR campaign.
• A new approach to music marketing and PR.
• Better press releases and music photography.

This seminar is led by Chris Cooke, MD and Business Editor of CMU. Chris has written about the music business daily for nearly fifteen years, and is a leading expert on the sector, often commenting on it for other media, most notably the BBC.

He also has hands-on experience working on music and marketing projects involving artists, labels, brands and media. An experienced trainer, Chris brings insider insights, practical experience and legal training to his teaching.

CMU Insights provides training to hundreds of music industry professionals each year via our own seminar and masterclass programmes, in-house training for music companies like Sony Music, ie:music and ATC Management, and sessions for members of industry organisations like BPI and IMRO.

Dublin Studio Hub announces that it has expanded into music publishing following the signing of partnership deal with leading independent music publishers 23rd Precinct Music and Notting Hill Music.

With access to top level industry pitches Dublin Studio Hub are on the hunt for experienced writers capable of writing songs to an international standard.

If you are interested in joining their team of great song writers send a sample of your work to info@nulldublinstudiohub.com

http://www.dublinstudiohub.com

Craig Gallagher and ZaPho have just been announced to perform at the next IMRO First Cuts Showcase at Abner Brown’s. The June edition of the monthly showcase, will take place on Thursday 15^th June at 8.00pm. Admission is FREE but due to limited capacity tickets are limited to two per person and booking is essential: email events@nullimro.ie

IMRO First Cuts Showcases at Abner Brown’s feature the best up and coming as well as established Irish acts. In the intimate setting performers are given the opportunity to debut new tracks along with their current material. Performance highlights and interviews with all acts who perform are later streamed online at www.IMRO.ie and across IMRO’s social media channels. To date, showcases have featured the likes of Marc O’Reilly, Ailbhe Reddy, Mark Geary, Farah Elle and Bronagh Gallagher.

Dubliner Craig Gallagher started his career sing in the pubs of Temple Bar alongside his childhood best friend Gavin James. They both played as a duo and Craig has continued to support Gavin on all his tours across Ireland and Europe including the Sold Out show at Marquee in Cork and Dublin’s 3Arena. The response to Craig on these tours has been incredible and he recently released a four track EP that went No. 1 on iTunes in Ireland on release and he has reached over 1 Million streams on Spotify. Now Craig is selling out his own tours across Ireland and Europe including Whelan’s in Dublin and the legendary Paradiso in Amsterdam to name but a few! Craig was also selected to perform on Other Voices last December and followed this with a headline tour of Ireland in early 2017 as well as supporting Picture This in a sold out Olympia Theatre.

ZaPho is difficult to describe, but for all the right reasons. Experimenting with different genres, she has developed a heady blend of indie lyricism and synth based modern drum-and-bass that, so far, defies definition. The resulting tracks range from melodic, harmony-layered pop to weightier, urban-inspired breakdowns, all knitted together with a distinctive vocal performance. Having completed her first Irish tour, supporting Cathy Davey last October, ZaPho has been lying low writing and recording her debut album with a single and video release due shortly. She’ll be blitzing the Dublin music scene and festival circuit with an ever-evolving, often hair-raising performance. Watch this space.

Abner Brown’s is not only the coolest barbershop in town, it’s also one of Dublin’s most unique venues. The unlikely Rathmines venue has already seen performances from hundreds of acts such as Ash, Gavin Glass, Duke Special, David Geraghty (of Bell X1 fame), The Young Folk, Molly Sterling, Mundy, The Hot Sprockets and many more. REM’s Michael Stipe has even paid a visit.

IMRO is a national organisation that administers the performing right in copyright music in Ireland on behalf of its members (songwriters, composers and music publishers) and on behalf of members of the international overseas societies that are affiliated to it. Music users such as broadcasters, venues and businesses must pay for their use of copyright music by way of a blanket licence fee. IMRO’s Mission is to protect, promote and develop the collection and distribution of music royalties; foster music creation and promote the value of music to the creative, cultural and business communities in Ireland.

Tickets for IMRO First Cuts at Abner Brown’s are FREE but due to limited capacity booking is essential.  To reserve tickets please email events@nullimro.ie. Tickets are limited to two per person.

For More Information:

http://imro.ie

https://www.facebook.com/AbnerBrownsBarbershop/
https://www.craiggallagher.ie/

https://www.facebook.com/ZaPhoMusic/