FIELDS
Info: REMY's latest Irish independent playlist is here featuring some of the best tracks to be released over the last few weeks. We also include a track from Wexford hip-hop act Alex Potgieter, aka Awkward Z., and single 'Wildin'' which he released in July, and came to our attention this week, it's a rapid grower.
1) FIELDS - 'Get Worse'
There's a really well delivered feeling of solemn beauty in Dublin-based alt-rock band FIELDS' latest single 'Get Worse', one that didn't strike me the first few listens. Frontman Sean O'Brien shares that at its heart, the theme is based on impostor syndrome, a tug of war between who and where you are, and who and where you should be at any given time. FIELDS have been enviously consistent with every single released to date, producing original music and ideas that are very appealing.
2) We Cut Corners - 'Laughing Maniacally'
Speaking of consistency, and variety, Dublin pair We Cut Corners are fast becoming one of my favourite Irish acts, taken from their soon to be released album Impostors, 'Laughing Maniacally' adds immeasurably to the brilliance of previous single 'The Specialist'. The draw here for me is how their sound has a bone fide Irish 90's rock DNA, a peak period, I think of Future Kings of Spain and Turn. Yet, they are boldly bursting with a fresh take on indie-rock, and boy can they write a tune. I'm hooked, again.
1) FIELDS - 'Get Worse'
There's a really well delivered feeling of solemn beauty in Dublin-based alt-rock band FIELDS' latest single 'Get Worse', one that didn't strike me the first few listens. Frontman Sean O'Brien shares that at its heart, the theme is based on impostor syndrome, a tug of war between who and where you are, and who and where you should be at any given time. FIELDS have been enviously consistent with every single released to date, producing original music and ideas that are very appealing.
2) We Cut Corners - 'Laughing Maniacally'
Speaking of consistency, and variety, Dublin pair We Cut Corners are fast becoming one of my favourite Irish acts, taken from their soon to be released album Impostors, 'Laughing Maniacally' adds immeasurably to the brilliance of previous single 'The Specialist'. The draw here for me is how their sound has a bone fide Irish 90's rock DNA, a peak period, I think of Future Kings of Spain and Turn. Yet, they are boldly bursting with a fresh take on indie-rock, and boy can they write a tune. I'm hooked, again.
3) Marc O'Reilly - 'Walk With Me'
Marc O'Reilly's most recent album L'Etre Politique which was released in March of this year will certainly figure in many end of year lists as one of the best Irish LP's of the past 12 months, with opener 'Enemy Of' being such a bad-ass single, par example! When you think of what could be loosely called 'guitar-based' Irish bands who seem to dominate the mainstream music press and radio play on a constant rotation, the contrast between their playing and what someone like O'Reilly produces are sharp, they can't hold a candle to him. To be precise on 'Walk With Me', get yourself to the 3:34 mark on the track, and I thought these guys grew up with Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple!
4) Saint Sister - James Vincent McMorrow Remix - 'You Never Call'
JVMcM casts his creative hand over Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntyre's 'You Never Call' with very joy-inducing results. It's happy, and at the same time a cocktail of mellow and sedated. It's also a big divergence from Saint Sister's whirling atmospherics, it's always nice when a remix takes a new angle, but here McMorrow turns their sound upside-down and inside-out. I can also kind of hear the 2018 love-child of LemonJelly and the Beta Band peaking through the blinds here.
Awkward Z.
5) Awkward Z. - 'Wildin''
Like every genre, our local hip-hop can sometimes walk a rocky and unstable rope-bridge between quality and trying to emulate the 'big win' of sounding friendly to the masses. With 'Wildin'' Awkward Z. floats across that perilous chasm, the pop elements are overt and in your face, exactly where you want them to be. It was absolutely a good call to put this single out during the summer, it's just a pity more people didn't hear it, it's smooth and a giver, not a taker. I can also easily imagine Potgieter digging into the well of uncomfortable political and social themes for inspiration in the future.
To listen to REMY's previous Irish Playlist, #034, go here! https://thebestofmusicandfilm.blogspot.com/2018/08/irish-playlist-034-havvk-jane-willow-SOULE-fruitz-dissolve.html
