Jafaris - Photo: Arman Jose Galang
Info: Once again REMY brings you a round-up of the best independent Irish releases from the last few weeks. To coincide with the release of his latest video, we open with the glorious track 'If You Love Me' from Dublin rap artist Jafaris. The video, directed by Nathan Barlow and Cian Hamilton, is a triumph of combining the raw power of the single with some top-drawer visuals and story-boarding and is easily one of the best produced Irish music videos of 2017 (watch below).
Jafaris - If You Love Me
Dublin's Autre Monde released new single 'Village of Loomers' during the week with a premier over on The Thin Air. The four-piece, made up of members of No Monster Club, Land Lovers, Ginels and Paddy Hanna cast our minds back to the wonderful heady days of late 90's / early 00's Irish indie-rock with a 2017 blanket thrown over it. Ahead of the release of her debut album Vestigial, indie-folk act Laura Ryder released her latest single 'Moon' on Thursday .Her animated and highly entertaining live performance style recaptured here on a recording that features bouncing piano progressions and an uptempo pop beat that is hard to ignore.
After sharing the video for his single 'Rolf' last week, we share the second part of the double A-Side release from THUMPER's Joey Gavin, 'Run'. It's another high-energy affair from Gavin, blending care-free indie-pop with fuzz-rock undertones and his uniquely versatile vocal. Belfast's And So I Watch You From Afar are back with a bang with new single 'A Slow Unfolding of Wings' which is taken from their forthcoming LP The Endless Shimmering, out 20th of October. Their first ever music video accompanies the album's lead single, musically it's what you would expect if Weezer's Brian Bell dropped into the studio to jam with Mogwai, rolling bass-lines and squealing guitar riffs echo across some heavy percussion, and it's perfect.
ASIWYFA - A Slow Unfolding of Wings
Indie-pop and electronic Limerick duo A Dream, The Night dropped their debut single and music video for 'Sick Day', like a metronome that has become self-aware, the track flickers between sharp electronic effects and Julianne Murray's chilled out vocal performance, the overall ambience of the song conjuring up some serious nostalgia for late 90's downtempo choonage.
Cork contemporary folk solo act Cormac O'Caoimh shares the latest single from his fourth album shiny silvery things which was released at the start of the summer. As always we are surrounded by the warm glow of O'Caoimh's vocals on 'Silence and Sound', strings and rhyme provide a soft place for us to rest our heads and drift off; "Time is like a church / Its signs remind me / A choir of ghosts sing rhymes / A bell tower chimes / Statues stand still in lines / Silence and sound remind me."
Tribal Dance - Flongo
Yeah, yeah, yeah! A while ago we featured a set of live recordings from Dublin math-rock outfit Tribal Dance, and now we finally have a studio recording of their debut single and video 'Flongo' (above). It's dizzying and all over the shop in the very best of ways, those snares take a right pounding and the bass and wobbling guitar effects pack an almighty punch, add to that some Beastie Boys-esque rhyme spitting and we have a serious first outing from the trio on our hands.
Dublin indie-rock four-piece Fruitz released their debut EP, the appropriately named 5 a Day, a few weeks ago, and we're digging the third track 'Alicia' especially. A dreamy opening guitar riff and vox make way at the half-way point to an invigorating crescendo of good ole rock n' roll lead guitar and thrashing drums. We wrap up with some 60's infused psych folk-rock courtesy of Music for Dead Birds and their track 'Swim With Me' from their recently released EP, Nail & Tooth. The Galway pair deliver some highly enjoyable lo-fi rhythmic vigour across the track, and indeed the EP itself.
For our previous independent Irish playlist, head along here to listen to Issue #10 http://thebestofmusicandfilm.blogspot.ie/2017/08/playlist-remys-irish-independent-top-10.html
