Month: September 2017

Owen Denvir announces new Single ‘Jackhammer’ + bonus track Green Light.

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OWEN DENVIR : SINGLE: ‘Jackhammer’ + Bonus track ‘Green Light’ OUT 3rd Nov 2017

“A songwriter of subtle complexity that belies his tender years” – Daily Mirror

“Lyrically and vocally expressive… Denvir’s classical background provides an intricately delicate musical scaffold” – State.ie

“Honest and personal song-craft, paired with beautiful vocals… This Northern star is rising fast” – Hot Press magazine

Belfast singer-songwriter & video maker Owen Denvir is excited to announce the release of his new single: ‘Jackhammer’ on Friday 3rd of November 2017 with bonus track ‘Green Light’. The two tracks showcase this vibrant Singer Songwriter’s panache and style of writing blissful pop songs taken from the everyday, such as breaking up and picking up the pieces by getting yourself back out there. Denvir’s vocals take centre-stage, making for a masterfully meditative tale of pain, solace, redemption and hope.

Take ‘Jackhammer’, which marks a move to a new country resulting in a break up, and ‘Green Light’ – the resulting anxious venture back into the world of dating via the popular app Tinder. “I was waiting for a reply from someone that I’d matched with: a ‘green light’ notification on my phone… and these two songs mark the yin and yang process of losing and finding love… I am a hopeful romantic”.

An avid video and mash-up maker, Owen caught the attention of Coldplay with his “Best Of” mash-up, performing a fusion of hits from their first 7 albums. His full series of split-screen multi-instrumental arrangements have surpassed 2,000,000 views across YouTube and Facebook

Owen’s Live Video EP “Motion Picture Soundtrack” – launched Feb ’17 to a sell-out show in The Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast – offered an original alternative to releasing new music, keeping with his signature “split-screen” style and one-man multi-instrumentalism. Coverage has come as widespread as Irish television spots on UTV Life and TV3’s 6 O’Clock Show, with features from ITV News, Independent.ie & Belfast Telegraph, and Irish radio stations Cool FM & BBC Radio Ulster.

Links:


Website: www.owendenvir.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/OwenDenvir

Twitter: www.twitter.com/OwenDenvir

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Irish band JIGGY rocket into the World Music Charts and will perform on the Late Late Show (RTE) this Friday 22nd September.

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Irish band JIGGY rocket into the World Music Charts and will perform on the Late Late Show (RTE) this Friday 22nd September.

Irish band Jiggy just entered the World Music Charts and have taken the internet by storm with their new video ‘Silent Place’ celebrating the global togetherness of dance.
Jiggy released their new video on Thursday the 14th of September and to date it has clocked up more than 12 million views and over 250,000 unique shares online. This has introduced the band to a brand new audience worldwide and their debut album Translate is currently at number 1 in the Irish world music charts and number 2 in United States, Canada, France and the United Kingdom.

The Late Late Show has invited Jiggy to perform this Friday and audiences can expect a thrilling live version of their viral hit Silent Place.

Jiggy’s fusion of Irish traditional music, world rhythms, and cutting-edge dance grooves have proved a massive hit with festival audiences throughout the country. Says Robbie Harris from the band:  “let’s get the world dancing… all ages, all cultures!”
Translate, their new album, is available on all online digital stores. https://itunes.apple.com/ie/album/translate/id1248100643

Categories: Latest News

PUGWASH announce new album ‘Silverlake’

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Pugwash

New album: Silverlake & Single: The Perfect Summer

 If Brit Awards were handed out to Best Kept Secrets or Lamentably Lost Legends, Pugwash wouldn’t be able to move under the weight of their gongs. In the 20 years since the Irish band was formed by Thomas Walsh – an ELO, XTC and Beach Boys nut from Drimnagh, south Dublin – their reputation has grown by stealth and they’ve caught the attention of almost all of Walsh’s musical heroes, but mainstream success has remained frustratingly, tantalisingly just out of reach.

Well if it’s ever going to happen, it’s now, with the release of their seventh studio album Silverlake. It’s not only Thomas’s best body of work to date, but an album which leaves you marvelling at how effortlessly he can conjure up so many heavenly pop gems after all these years.

“I still live in a small house with nine guitars, a Dansette, a telly and a fuckin’ mellotron,” says Walsh. “I collect records and live hand-to-mouth. We’ve made some great records but most of them have gone nowhere.”

Silverlake differs from recent Pugwash albums in one major respect: it’s essentially a collaboration between two men – Thomas and Jason Falkner. (The four-piece who recorded 2011’s Top 20 The Olympus Sound and 2015’s Play This Intimately (As If Among Friends) has now disbanded). As a former member of Jellyfish, respected solo artist, and musician, Falkner – who’s worked with everyone from Paul McCartney to Air – is another underrated artist with a hugely loyal international following. For fans of these two cult heroes (and there are plenty) this promised to be a dream ticket…and it delivers in droves.

Recorded in Falkner’s LA studio earlier this year, Thomas wrote all 11 songs, arranged them, and played acoustic guitar. Jason played everything else (except the strings), sang backing vocals and recorded/produced. The result is a classy pop-rock feast featuring Walsh’s endlessly hooky melodies and Falkner’s unmistakeable sonic footprint.

“I’ve known Jason for twenty years, so I rang him last Christmas and asked him what his next year was looking like,” Thomas reveals. “He said, ‘It’s fuckin’ full up, but if you’re saying to me we can make a record, I’ll make time.’ That was an amazing thing to hear. The minute I heard that I was hooked. I got excited again. Within a week I’d written all the songs.”

Opening with the irresistible single “The Perfect Summer” and closing with the Beach Boys/ELO homage “Autarch”, Silverlake wears its collaborators’ passion for pop perfection on its sleeve which, at the very least, will consolidate Pugwash’s standing in the eyes of those Thomas most admires.

In 2006 Brian Wilson’s manager David Leaf emailed him out of the blue, mentioning Brian loved the band’s recent single “It’s Nice To Be Nice”. “Brian was coming to Dublin to play and wanted to meet me…meet me!!” Thomas recalls. “He came and I met Brian. He said ‘Hey! You’re the “Nice To Be Nice” guy. I said ‘yes’ and he just said, ‘great song’!! I still think it was all a fantastic dream to honest.”

In the meantime, other ‘celebrity’ admirers got in touch, including XTC’s Andy Partridge who briefly signed Pugwash to his Ape label and co-wrote several songs with Walsh (XTC’s Dave Gregory also played guitar on some of the band’s earlier recordings), The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon – with whom he made two best-selling Duckworth Lewis Method albums – and Jeff Lynne.

“I arrived home late one night after an Olympus Sound session, knackered, to find a letter from the States,” Thomas recalls. “I nearly dropped when I realised it was from Jeff Lynne. I grew up worshipping ELO – I could tell you how many hairs there are on Jeff Lynne’s arse. He’s my idol. It was such a beautiful letter in which he said a lot of really nice things about Pugwash. He also said… ‘and I really liked the cricket album (ie, the first Duckworth Lewis album), but I didn’t think it featured you enough’. So I rang Neil straight away and said, ‘Neil, Jeff just sent me a fuckin’ letter. He’s slagging you and all in it, it’s brilliant!”

After two decades Thomas has little to prove. Despite certain disappointments, he’s received great acclaim from where it counts – his peers and equals, plus Ivor Novello, Choice Music Prize and Meteor Awards nominations, and two Top 40 albums (with The Duckworth Lewis Method). The only way is up!

As Thomas concludes: “Some people have suggested, ‘Oh why don’t you change the sound of your music?’ But…I love the sound of my records! They ask if I would try something different. I could, but you can’t go out there and make a record just to please other people.” – Chris Twomey.

Silverlake by Pugwash will be released by British indie label Lojinx on November 24th, on heavyweight vinyl LP, CD & digital. Lead single The Perfect Summer is out now on ice-cream swirl coloured 7” vinyl and digital.

Upcoming live shows:

  • 4/12 – Cork Opera House (supporting Divine Comedy)
  • 5/12 – University Convert Hall, Limerick House (supporting Divine Comedy)
  • 6/12 – Millennium Forum, Derry (supporting Divine Comedy)
  • 7/12 – Ulster Hall, Belfast (supporting Divine Comedy)
  • 8/12 – Olympia Theatre, Dublin (supporting Divine Comedy)
  • 9/12 – Olympia Theatre, Dublin (supporting Divine Comedy)

www.pugwash.ie | fb.com/pugwashtheband | twitter.com/pugwashofficial | twitter.com/ThomasWalsh1

Phil Cosby announces new EP

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Alternative-pop artist Phil Cosby Announces retro-futuristic EP ‘Blue Daze’ this October


Rising Irish alternative-pop artist Phil Cosby is pleased to announce details of his new EP ‘Blue Daze’ on 20th October.

‘Blue Daze’, a breathtakingly emotive record, sees Cosby effortlessly drawing on late 70s/ early 80s youth nostalgia, resulting in a truly immersive soundscape. Collectively the five tracks juxtapose themes of hope and loss over powerful, melodic rhythms. He details the EP: “I took inspiration from the Tangerine Dream track – Love On A Real Train, heard in the 80s movie Risky Business. The track’s evocative and unique quality sparked my interest in nostalgia, and the idea that this emotion in music, might be more than just a ‘time and place’ association personal to the listener – that certain music has in itself a nostalgic quality.”

With the influence of retro-futurism, ‘Blue Daze’ was conceptualised in a sci-fi realm. The intention is to hinge the journey around two big tracks, ‘Star Rider’ and ‘The Days We Were Young’. The former, with a Can vibe, and the latter with a dream pop feel. To accomplish this, two drummers of very different styles were used for the respective tracks. Malcolm Catto (DJ Shadow, Floating Points) and Martyn Barker (Goldfrapp, Robert Plant, Beth Gibbons). The aim was for these two tracks to juxtapose each other, yet sit perfectly together in the piece as a whole.

Cosby’s self-produced debut album ‘The Deal’ was released in 2014. It journeys from broken down, one man and his guitar, to orchestral arrangements and psychedelic inflections. Notable contributors to the album include mercury prize nominee Jon Hopkins. The record was mixed by studio legend Phil Brown whose CV includes The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, and David Bowie. It was most specifically Brown’s work with Talk Talk and John Martyn that led Cosby to work with him. The Deal’s release was followed by an extensive tour of Ireland culminating at Electric Picnic Festival.

For the recording of ‘Blue Daze’, Cosby assembled a band of notable musicians. On bass – Simon Edwards (Talk Talk), keys – Mikey Rowe (David Gilmour), on drums – Malcolm Catto (DJ Shadow, Floating Points) and Martyn Barker (Goldfrapp). The album was engineered by Phill Brown (Talk Talk, John Martyn), and mixed by Malcolm Catto of The Heliocentrics, at his vintage analogue studio – Quatermass Sound Lab, in Dalston, London. ‘Blue Daze’ has been mastered and cut for vinyl by John Dent (PJ Harvey, Portishead).

Tracklist: 1. Mem#01   2. Star Rider   3. Mirari   4. The Crash   5. The Days We Were Young

SOUNDCLOUD https://soundcloud.com/phil-cosby

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/philcosbymusic

INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/philcosbymusic

TWITTER https://twitter.com/philcosbymusic

WEBSITE https://www.philcosby.com

Blue Daze is available for pre order on Bandcamp. Link https://philcosby.bandcamp.com/