Marcus Lambkin aka Shit Robot follows up his From The Cradle To The Rave album with a series of releases under the banner The Green Machine. First up is the 12” ‘Teenage Bass’ / ‘Space Race’, the latter of which sounds like the melded outcome of joint Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk inspirations.

The preview is non-embeddable but you can listen to its 8 minute full length at:
http://soundcloud.com/dfa-records/shit-robot-space-race.

Preview the other track here. The EP is available from DFA once the web store is back working. You can catch Shit Robot at Forbidden Fruit also.

Bypassing normal channels of distribution, Yeasayer perhaps knew their new material would inevitably end up online so they posted physical copies of their new song ‘Henrietta’ to some mailing list members and waited. Will at We All Want Someone was one of the bloggers who made it available to the world.

‘Henrietta’ continues on from the band’s Odd Blood era with tight pop production informed by spacious bass notes, refracted synths and uplifting vocals. It bodes well for album 3.

Dublin duo White Collar Boy have been making themselves a key part of Dublin’s live scene with a multitude of support slots and a biweekly club night in The Pygmalion where they host some of the best in new Irish music at the moment. This weekend, they will cross over into real life release mode with the Kinsale, a six-track EP consisting of songs not previously heard on the internet (save for the taster track ‘Long Walk Home’).

The songs are generally in a buoyant electronic mode with nods to the all-encompassing dance music of Hot Chip and ’90s electronica with vocal contributions from Gemma Dunlovely and The Mighty Stef. ‘Another Way’ is my personal favourite.

The EP is available digitally and on 12″ with a launch gig happening this Friday in Button Factory with Subaltern on support duties. Free in from 11pm.

Nicolas Jaar kicks off his two hour mix with a snippet of audio from Angelo Badalamenti about working on the Twin Peaks soundtrack. That eerie creepiness that pervades the show works its way in the mix with snatches of the soundtrack of There Will Be Blood, Jay-Z, thumping techno beats, minimal piano edits, Aphex Twin, a couple of tracks from his Clown and Sunset label, neo-classical nods, some Beyoncé, Marvin Gaye and um.. NSYNC.

Download link.

Tracklisting

Nicolas Jaar & Maceo Plex – Gravy Train (Nicolas Jaar Remix) [Get Physical Music]
Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise [Clown & Sunset]
Laxx & Farkas – Creature
Nicolas Jaar – Don’t Break My Love [Clown & Sunset]
Angelo Badalamenti – Conversation On Twin Peaks [Warner Bros]
The Brothers Four – Greenfields [Columbia]
Jay-Z – My First Song (Acapella) [Roc-A- Fella]
Jonny Greenwood – There Will Be Blood [NONESUCH]
Los Ángeles Negros – Tu Y Tu Mirar… Yo Y Mi Cancion [Harmless]
LaShun Pace – It’s Me Oh Lord (Acapella Praise) [Shanachie]
Jonny Greenwood – Open Spaces [NONESUCH]
Pearson Sound – Footloose [Pearson Sound]
The Electric Prunes – Holy Are You (There Is No God Edit) [Reprise]
Aphex Twin – Ziggomatic 17 [WARP]
Keith Jarrett – Tokyo, November 14 (Encore) [ECM Records]
My Girl And Me – Always Back To You (feat. Lorraine) [Unknown]
Vera November – Last Night Together (You’re Coming Back Edit) [Rough Trade]
Nikita Quasim – L’amour L’après Midi [Clown and Sunset]
Nikita Quasim – The Way I Felt Today [Clown and Sunset]
Feist – Caught A Long Wind [Polydor]
??? – Yujemi’s Theme (In The Mood For Love) [Higher Octave OmTown]
*NSYNC – It Makes Me Ill (Edit) [JIVE]
[unknown] – Unknown
Charles Mingus – Myself When I’m Real [IMPULSE]
Bill Callahan – America! [DRAG CITY]
The Field – The Little Heart Beats So Fast [Kompakt]
Sneaky Sound System – Always By Your Side (Nicolas Jaar Remix) [Modular]
Just Friends – Avalanche [Unknown]
Pavla + Noura – Don’t Owe Me A Thing [Clown and Sunset]
Acid Pauli – La Voz Tan Tierna [Clown and Sunset]
Igor Wakhevitch – Taddy’s Dream: Ramallah’s Road [Pathé Marconi EMI]
Nikita Quasim – Derridu [Unknown]
Beyoncé Knowles – 1+1 [Columbia]
Anouar Brahem – Vague / E La Nave Va [ECM]
Rio Grande – Let’s Groove (Tonight Edit) [Unknown]
Gonzales – Manifesto [Sunnyside]
The Grass Roots – Let’s Live For Today (Learn To Live Edit) [Dunhill]
Marvin Gaye – Inner City Blues (Sk Edit) [TAMLA]
Man Friday – Real Love (The Paradise Garage Mix) (feat. larry levan) [Nite Grooves]
DJ Slugo – What That Do [Subterranean Playhouse]
Ricardo Villalobos – What You Say Is More Than I Can Say [Playhouse]
Untitled – Untitled [Unknown]
Nicolas Jaar – The Student [Wolf & Lamb]

El-P’s new album Cancer For Cure is streaming on Rolling Stone. but watch this first…

Your Monday morning wakeup. This video is so late night ’90s MTV2. I love it. Imagine seeing this without any context. The Death Grips new album The Money Store is still streaming below…

It’s always a pleasure to hear a band move to the next level of their artistry. Sleep Thieves’ newest EP Islands is a big step up for the band in my estimation. The electro-pop of debut album Heart Waves didn’t grab me as much as I would have liked but the refinement on Islands is a big improvement.

The songs are dipped in atmospherics and are all the better for it. The EP’s five tracks are introduced by a brooding synth and vocal refrain on ‘Out Of The Darkness’, a stepping out into the clearing of sorts that indicates the band’s new identity and mood. ‘Oceans’ recalls both Austra and Fever Ray in its gothic synth textures and its pitched down vocals up against Sorcha Brennan’s siren call. The title track is the closest to the band’s old material and shows up just how far they’ve come while ‘Spirit Animal’ reaches for growling warehouse synth jams. The EP was recorded and produced by Sean Corcoran (who is a good friend as it happens and has produced records by Super Extra Bonus Party, Funeral Suits and Le Galaxie recently). Islands is out now from Bandcamp and streamable below. Highly recommended.

Tara Masterson Hally

Folk songs surrounded by a gossamer of ethereal icy reverb is an aesthetic that Irish musicians like Katie Kim have been using to great effect. Dubliner Tara Masterson Hally is the latest singer to follow that sound and the outcome is gorgeous.

MS MR

This New York duo appeared last summer with a series of intriguing covers and originals. Now, they’re back with Hurricane, a elegiac number that stirs up a moody atmosphere like much of Florence Welch’s latest album.

Madeaux

Twisted a soulful vocal sample, this 19 year old American producer uses it as a starting point for a reverb-soaked blissed-out electronic tune called Opium that rivals his already impressive remix work of SBTRKT, Fever Ray and James Blake.

Girl Unit

Having made a name for himself with 2010′s huge club track Wut on the Night Slugs label, Philip Gamble returns with a brand new six-track EP has got them hopping again proving Gamble as a contender for the UK’s most singular producer.

See post.

Last year, Cian Nugent came to a lot of people’s attention with his full-length album Doubles. With just two songs at 45 minutes long, the album was no hop skip and jump easy release. It was an album of steely guitar music inspired by the American fingerstyle legend John Fahey with a spot-on full-band diversions over its running time.

This new 7″ is much more easily digestable but no less impactful. A tense and taut acoustic rendition of Black Flag’s ‘My War’ brings punk and folk into the same hands and hints at Nugent’s generation before taking us into hurtling blues territory and laying us down gently. That cover is proceeded by ‘Grass Above My Head’ a swirling bluesy sprightly Nugent original.

The 7″ is available from VHF Records and all good local shops if you ask.

Nugent was previously featured on NPR.

I chose this song as my alarm clock this morning and here we are, a brand new video to the song. Taken from Nicolas Jaar’s rather excellent collaboration with Dave Harrington as Darkside, Ryan Staake of Pomp & Clout‘s widescreen video’s sandy parched landscapes and robed figures remind me of the Jawas in Star Wars. Listen to the EP.

BLOCK T have a festival lined up for the 25th to the 27th of this month to promote and celebrate the art and people in the community of Smithfield and nearby in Dublin. The last few years have seen the Smithfield and surrounding area experience a small regrowth with Block T, the now defunct Space54, Flea markets, Supafast, Little Green Street Gallery, The Joinery, The Complex, and the Lighthouse cinema in the area enriching the locality and Block T’s LINK CULTUREFEST will be looking to represent and showcase that.

There will be a series of events including a large-scale exhibition with 70 artists taking part, talks, open studios and screenings in over 20 different buildings. The music is what I’m here for though right? So here’s what on:

Friday 25th May:

Phisqa at St Michans Church

Free live concert in St Michans Church / 9 – 11 pm
Afro-Peruvian Jazz band
“Phisqa brings all the joy and vibrancy of Peruvian rhythms to the audience through a truly international band that spans 5 countries.”

European Sensoria Band (ESB) / Mersk Collective at The Joinery

Live music in the Joinery gallery / 8 – 11 pm
5 € byob

Saturday 26th May

Trinity Chamber Orchestra + OKO at St.Michan’s Church

BLOCK T and LINK Culturefest present Trinity Chamber Orchestra performing the music of Radiohead with support from OKO at St.Michan’s Church
OKO – “OKO is a project led by guitarist Shane Latimer featuring keyboardist Darragh O’Kelly (Republic of Loose, Niwel Tsumbu), percussionist Shane O’Donovan (Dublin City Jazz Orchestra, Isotope) and turntablist DJackulate (North Strand Kontra Band). The group improvise between skeletal compositions, drawing on a wealth of influences such as krautrock, vintage TV shows, free jazz, noise, dub, drum ‘n’ bass, dubstep, musak, metal and more.“
Doors open: 8pm
€8

Full LINK CULTUREFEST info.

The best thing you’ll see all day. A tribute to the Beastie Boys’ MCA by Jamie Winters and his wife, his kids and his nephew in the form of a ‘Sabotage’ video. Thanks to Declan for the tip.

Highlights: Sharon Van Etten, Floating Points & Eglo records showcase, Eleanor Friedburger (left), Popicalia #15 (right), Laura Sheeran, Tim Hecker,The Jezebels, Michael Kiwanuka, Johann Johannsson, Hauscha, Dustin O’Halloran…

This is the weekly list of recommended gigs taking place over the next seven days in Dublin published every Tuesday. All times are 7.30/8pm unless stated. Feel free to recommend events not present in the comments below. If you’re looking for tickets to sold out gigs try #ticketfairy on Twitter.

Ticket giveaways:

• Friday May 18th: Hssh & This Greedy Pig Present: Floating Points, Fatima, Funkineven, Alexander Nut @ Twisted Pepper (€12)
• How to enter - Email freebies@nialler9.com along with your full name, your preference of gig and phone number before noon on Friday to enter.

Tuesday May 15th

• Odd Socks Revival, Overseas & The Makings @ Whelan’s (€5)
• Ruby Sessions @ Doyles (€6, 9pm)

Wednesday May 16th

• Polly Barrett @ Whelan’s (€8)
• Come for a Cause, Stay for the Music @ The Workman’s Club (€7)

Thursday May 17th

• Terror Pop @ Tower Records (1pm, Free)
• Estelle @ Button Factory (Cancelled)
• Wow Fundraiser: The Glimmermen, The Ragmen & more @ Rothar Cafe (Donation, 7pm)
• Guns ‘n’ Roses, Thin Lizzy, Vengeance & The Panther Queen @ The O2 (€64.50)
• Forward/Slash: Elaine Mai @ The Bernard Shaw (Free)
• Eleanor Friedberger @ Whelan’s (€15)
• Time Is A Thief @ Sweeney Mongrel’s ()
• Terror Pop, St. Yorda @ Whelan’s Upstairs (€5)
• White Collar Boy present: AdultRock, Mick Le Galaxie DJ @ The Pygmalion (Free, 9pm)
• Junior Spesh Live: Sleep Thieves, Tongue Bundle, She’s A Beauty & We Is Cloud @ Twisted Pepper (€7/€5)

Friday May 18th

• JD Roots: The Minutes, We Cut Corners, Delorentos @ Button Factory (Free but ticketed)
• Tim Hecker @ Unitarian Church (€15)
• Shabazz Palaces @ Twisted Pepper (€16)
• Scala & Kolacny Brothers @ Olympia (€33)
• Sharon Van Etten, Exitmusic @ Whelan’s (€16.50)
• Biforking @ The Joinery (€8)
• Sidetracked @ The Dark Horse (Free, 9:30pm)
• Popicalia #15 – Dott, The #1s, Tieranniesaur @ Tavern On The Green (€5, 9pm)
• Hssh & This Greedy Pig Present: Floating Points, Fatima, Funkineven, Alexander Nut @ Twisted Pepper (Win tickets)

Saturday May 19th

• Michael Kiwanuka @ The Academy (€16)
• The Jezebels @ The Button Factory (Sold out)
• Laura Sheeran, Margie Lewis @ Whelan’s (€10)
• Strange Attractor, Fag Enablerz, The #1s @ The Mercantile (€10)
• She’s a Beauty @ Whelan’s Upstairs (€5)
• !kaboogie presents Legion Of Two, NHKyx @ U bar (€10, 11pm)
• Pogo: Reeko, Bingo & more @ Twisted Pepper (€12)

Sunday May 20th

• 12 Sundays @ Bernard Shaw (Free, noon til late)
• Fat Cat: Johann Johannsson, Hauscha, Dustin O’Halloran @ The Sugar Club (2:30pm matinée, €20, €12 for a young adult)
• Saucy Sundays: 7 live bands @ The Grand Social (Free, 5pm)
• The Stag’s Head Raw: Carol Keogh & The City Fathers @ Stag’s Head (€10)
• Fat Cat: Johann Johannsson, Hauscha, Dustin O’Halloran @ The Sugar Club (€20)

Monday May 21st

• The Dublin Blues Club feat. Republic of Loose’s Mick Pyro @ Leeson Lounge

Girl U (K)No(w) It’s True. Girl Unit is back with a new EP on Night Slugs called Club Rez. At just shy of 30 minutes and six tracks, it’s a substantial release that sees Philip Gamble establish himself as one of the best club producers in the UK at the moment in my opinion as he did when ‘Wut’ first blew up for many. There are numerous highlights here: the funky bass and synth workout of ‘Ensemble’, the mechanical rhythm and 808 cowbells of ‘Cake Boss’, the unique minimal yet aurally rich ‘Double Take’ which takes an unexpected turn towards a euphoric outro and the heightened synth drama of the title track. Club Rez leaves me wanting more.

Tracks and previews below.

35 tracks from 35 countries. Every month, MAP (Music Alliance Pact) asks music bloggers to represent their home country and to pick a track that represents a nation. The results are posted on all of those blogs on the 15th of each month, downloadable in one file or playable one by one on each blog.

Ireland is represented by Not Squares.

Click the play button icon to listen to individual songs, right-click on the song title to download an mp3, or grab a zip file of the whole 34-track compilation through Ge.tt here.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
Prietto Viaja Al Cosmos Con Mariano – Ey, Esa No Es Forma De Decir Adiós
PVACCM is a psychedelic rock duo (Mariano, drums and vocals; Prietto, guitar and vocals) from Buenos Aires. Their first recordings were kind of lo-fi experiments but in the last couple of years they’ve developed a unique sound with melodies and lyrics that grow on you in a melancholic way. This track is their rendition of Leonard Cohen’s classic tune Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye and features on their last album, a 28-song double record that you can purchase from Bandcamp.

AUSTRIA: Walzerkönig
Mile Me Deaf – Wild At Heart
Mile Me Deaf is one of the other bands Killed By 9V Batteries’ Wolfgang Möstl plays in. And although side-projects – such an unfair name for a 500+ songs oeuvre – are usually a space for weird shit your band mates didn’t agree to, their first album Eat Skull, and especially the first single Wild At Heart, is surprisingly free of noise and distortion. Instead, it creates the last-day-of-summer-holidays feeling you know from Girls and Beach House.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
Leonardo Marques – Linha Do Trem
Nostalgic melodies are the hallmark of Dia e Noite No Mesmo Céu, the debut album of Leonardo Marques. His songs recall a bucolic scenery, romantic and lonely, as we can hear on Linha Do Trem. Leonardo recorded all instruments on his solo work (except drums) in a homely, intimate setting. His music is likely to appeal to fans of Elliott Smith, Clube Da Esquina and Jon Brion.

CANADA: Quick Before It Melts
The Rest – Always On My Mind
The story of The Rest’s new album, SEESAW, will be one of legend. First, their dear friend and producer Dan Achen passed away suddenly just as they started recording. Then, a month away from finishing the record, a hard-drive glitch deleted everything they’d done so far. It took a black box recovery team six months to retrieve it. Now, more than a year later, it’s here. And it’s stunning. The beautifully hazy Always On My Mind just hints at SEESAW’s orchestral brilliance.

CHILE: Super 45
Daniel Klauser – Simply Swag
If we had to put all our money on one name from the Chilean dance scene, it would definitively be Daniel Klauser. The young producer skillfully brings together elements from 90s house, ghetto-style hip hop and tribal music, and has so far gathered a considerable amount of positive reviews from local and international media. This track open his Simply Swag EP, which you can download for free from Diamante Records.

CHINA: Wooozy
Snapline – Sustaining
Beijing-based trio Snapline just released their second album Phenomena through Maybe Mars Records. Their music puts a contemporary Beijing spin on the sounds and ideas produced by the noise and minimalist musicians of the 70s and 80s, especially focusing on the New York scene of that period. They also explore the dark, industrial music coming out of England during that period, especially from bands such as Joy Division and The Cure.

COLOMBIA: El Parlante Amarillo
Like Some Cat From Japan – Johnny Ramone
Like Some Cat From Japan (LSCFJ) take their name from a line in one of David Bowie’s masterpieces, Ziggy Stardust. This electro group from Bogotá have a dance-punk sound that is perfect for the sweaty throng of a nightclub and dancing from dark until dawn.

DENMARK: All Scandinavian
SLOWOLF – See U In My Dreams
This summer Andreas Asingh, one third of lauded electro-pop outfit SMALL, will release his debut as SLOWOLF. Not much is known about the project but he says that black metal, hip hop and dream pop will unite, perhaps for the first time, on the album which will also feature a chorus written by a seven-year-old boy and Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan. Here’s the excellent first single See U In My Dreams, a Music Alliance Pact exclusive download.

ENGLAND: The Guardian Music Blog
Sarah Young – Ajambo Si
Sarah Young, noted the Guardian’s New Band of the Day writer, is the queen of moombahton, the genre that fuses Dutch house and reggaeton, soca and dancehall. If anyone is going to cross over and “do a Katy B”, as such a manoeuvre is becoming known, it’s this 22-year-old graduate of the Academy of Contemporary Music turned DJ, producer and all-round moom-bassador. Ajambo Si, the opening track on her new EP, features Lioness and Slick Don and is based on a kuduro rhythm, but to the NBotD writer it sounded “like dubstep meets dancehall or Caribbean grime, like Dizzee if he went to St Lucia on holiday and never came back”.

FINLAND: Glue
All Will Be Quiet – The First Day Pt. 2
Post-rock band All Will Be Quiet releases its debut album On The First Day this month. It is a concept record about the collapse and rebirth of society with an optimistic view on the how the future will be for mankind. Equally ambitious is The First Day Pt. 2, a grandiose and cinematic instrumental song that opens the second part of the album.

FRANCE: Yet You’re Fired
Birkii – Holy War
Birkii brought us the joyful pop song Shade Of Doubt last year on the great Kitsuné Parisien compilation, and then appeared in many mixes and playlists, including Edwin van Cleef’s April mixtape. Now she’s back with Holy War, a catchy synth-pop song from Kitsuné Parisien II that will also be on her debut EP out on June 4, with remixes from Equateur, Pol Rax, Pegase (last month’s MAP artist) and Zemaria.

GERMANY: Blogpartei
Christian Loeffler – Eleven (feat. Mohna)
There are many subtle things in Christian Loeffler’s debut A Forest which make his music very contemporary – there is swishing, there is rustling, there is clacking, there is tinging. In the pleasantly moody track Eleven, Mohna, singer of former MAP band Me Succeeds, adds another level to Loeffler’s calm but vivid opus.

ICELAND: Rjóminn
The Lovely Lion – Into The Forest
Representing the new wave of Icelandic folk-pop revival, The Lovely Lion are ones to watch for the future. Though this young and extremely talented band have only recorded a handful of songs and are still unsigned, their unique approach to songwriting and polished sound is sure to grab the attention of music lovers everywhere.

INDONESIA: Deathrockstar
AAS – Bonaparte
Raw, lo-fi, angry dark punk from Medan with added passion about world history which lead us to a song about Napoleon Bonaparte.

IRELAND: Nialler9
Not Squares – Fall Far
Northern Irish electro punks Not Squares have ditched the ultra high-energy in favour of a more restrained dancefloor synth-pop sound for their new single. While Fall Far’s new direction can be compared to the kind of stuff coming out on the Kitsuné label, it must be said that this is a very good look and a surprising one for the band. The best Irish song released in April bar none.

ITALY: Polaroid
The Mojomatics – You Are The Reason For My Trouble
You Are The Reason For My Trouble is the fourth album by The Mojomatics, one the best and coolest garage rock bands around Italy and Europe. The duo from Venice brings into their sound echoes of Rolling Stones, Kinks and Dylan, but what I deeply love about their songs and concerts is their tireless energy.

JAPAN: Make Believe Melodies
Wallflower – Cure Your Heart
Indie-pop music never left Japan, as bands trying to sound twee have been popping up since the C86 tape dropped. Yet this year has seen a boom in jangly rock groups, with Osaka outfit Wallflower being one of the catchiest. They take cues from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and even opened for that American band when they came to Japan earlier this year. This song shows they learned well from The Pains, as they nail dreamy indie-pop yearning in just over three minutes.

MALTA: Stagedive Malta
Stolen Creep – Throw Your Heart To The Sea
Stolen Creep is the brainchild of childhood friends Marie Borg Alden (guitars, vocals) and Rebecca Theuma (drums). The band has had many different members, recently settling into the current line-up of Marie, Rebecca and Katryna Storace (guitars, vocals). Following a busy year of writing, rewriting and rehearsals, they chose their favourite songs and retreated to record their first EP, Throw Your Heart To The Sea.

MEXICO: Red Bull Panamérika
Andy Mountains – Hoy Me Gusta Mi Peinado
The title of this song, translated into English, is “Today, I Like My Hair”. With the naive viewpoint of early college students, this Mexico City quintet portrait everyday existential nuances with an optimism only an iPod advertisement would reach. But don’t classify Andy Mountains as cheap, feelgood jingle-makers. Their sound thrives in high-brow references that go from Animal Collective to the minimalism of La Monte Young. Give this tune a try and have a good hair day!

PERU: SoTB
Audioley – Same Old
Audioley is a new project by Francois Peglau and Jules Drade, two Peruvian musicians based in London. Audioley started as an experiment, with the duo meeting one night every week to make a song a day. First single Same Old is feelgood electronic pop and comes with a curious and funny video.

PORTUGAL: Posso Ouvir Um Disco?
T(h)ree – Starlight
T(h)ree was featured in MAP in February 2011. T(h)ree is not a band but a project which brings together musicians/bands from Portugal and, for this second volume, Philippines and Singapore. In the featured track, we have Stealing Orchestra (Portugal), Maze (Portugal) and The Analog Girl (Singapore) playing together.

PUERTO RICO: Puerto Rico Indie
Harry Rag – Tiny Painting
Harry Rag is the solo project of Kristian Prieto (Coleco, Alegría Rampante), who wanted to figure out just how many sounds and moods he could generate with his acoustic guitar. Prieto has released seven ‘web albums’ under the Harry Rag name, all recorded in his bedroom straight to a four-track, each one expanding on his guitar experiments and polishing up his sound. Tiny Painting is a great recent example of his prowess as a young musician and is taken from his latest album, The Ghastly Adventures Of Ghost Goat.

ROMANIA: Babylon Noise
Jazzadezz – Fairy
Jazzadezz is a dream pop/new wave band formed by Alin Zabrauteanu (synths, guitar, production) and Dezdemona Mihaescu (vocals). For their 2010 debut album Inimani Mal, Calin Torsan (Domnisoara Pogany and NU & Apa Neagră) joined the band playing clarinet, recorder and caval. In 2012, another two members were added, Alex Stanciu on guitar (also in Domnisoara Pogany) and drummer Eduard Gabia, a renowned choreographer and contemporary artist. The second album, Panta Rhei, was released last month and experiments in new areas such as ambient, post-rock and trip-hop.

RUSSIA: Big Echo
2muchachos – Striwi Kri4at
Striwi Kri4at is a beautiful instrumental piece from romantic dream pop band 2muchachos, who released their Vesnywki!! EP last month, a perfect soundtrack for spring.

SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
Julia And The Doogans – Down The Line
Julia Doogan has everything you’d want from a pop singer – a genuinely distinguishable voice, a breakable heart, just the right amount of melancholy, and lyrics that are honest but not mushy. MAP exclusive free download Down The Line is taken from Julia And The Doogans’ achingly graceful new five-track Diamonds EP (buy on Bandcamp), and shows off the talents of Julia and her lush band to near perfection.

SINGAPORE: I’m Waking Up To…
Sze Kiat – Once In A While
No man is an island, yet one gets the sense that the musical ideas that transpire in Sze Kiat’s mind were born from the stillness of time. There’s an unhurried approach to his songwriting and an intimacy that evokes a strain that could only come from a sort of crying out from some terrifying or forsaken place. Featuring traditional Chinese stringed instruments such as the erhu and the zhongruan, the sparse instrumentation serves as the background to Sze Kiat’s simple yet emotive lyrics.

SOUTH AFRICA: Musical Mover & Shaker!
Nate Maingard – The Open Space
Nate Maingard is an indie-folk singer-songwriter from Cape Town whose music often brings the likes of Damien Rice, Coldplay and Jack Johnson to mind. His voice has been compared to Thom Yorke and Ben Gibbard, and his easy style and sense of melody shine through on The Open Space with a passionate undertone throughout.

SOUTH KOREA: Korean Indie
E9 – My Little Flutter
E9, short for Edward Nine, wish to combine the pureness of Edward Scissorhands with the rampage of Nine Inch Nails. Their sound is influenced by groups like Placebo and Muse, while their lyrics tell fairy tales. The band has been around for several years and are preparing to release their first EP. My Little Flutter is a perfect sample of E9′s mixture of grunge, punk and Britpop with electronic sounds.

SPAIN: Musikorner
Boreals – Luciérnagas
Boreals are probably younger than any of you beloved MAP readers but that doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re doing. And what they do is deliver a fine mixture of cosmic post-rock (clearly influenced by Explosions In The Sky) embellished with clouds of synths that makes their sound epic and heart-touching, just as post-rock should. Luciérnagas, one of their most atmospheric tracks, is taken from their second EP, Grecia, released through Barcelona-based label Irregular, home of former MAP acts Lasers and The Suicide Of Western Culture.

SWEDEN: Swedesplease
Skatan – Control
The new record from Skatan is out on May 23 and is called Seven Trees. The first single, Control, features a little more eclectic instrumentation than in the past and Simone Andersson Wingfors’ voice is less processed and more immediate, resulting in a song that hits all the right chords.

SWITZERLAND: 78s
Baba Shrimps – Angel
This five-piece from Zurich play impulsive pop music with a blend of country and rock. Baba Shrimps will release a new record at the end of 2012, but to shorten the waiting time they have dropped a live version of a new, unreleased song called Angel.

TURKEY: WEARTBEAT
Solardip – Leap Of Faith
With their French electro/indie-influenced sound, Solardip is one of the few live acts of their genre in the country. In a short time, these three Istanbul youngsters have attracted a big audience. Debut album Future Now came out in March through Remoov Records after the release of the spectacular single and sexy video of Dance Like Wolves.

UNITED STATES: I Guess I’m Floating
Nicole Miglis – Stay Small
There’s no hiding my affection for Gainesville’s Hundred Waters, one of 2012′s best new bands. Just as bewilderingly complete, elegant and worth exploring is the solo work of their frontwoman, Nicole Miglis. Stay Small is from her debut self-titled EP, which you can download for free here.

VENEZUELA: Música y Más
Ulises Hadjis – Donde Va
Ulises Hadjis is a young artist from Maracaibo. Despite his fledgling career, he already has two albums and a Latin Grammy as a music producer to his name. His second record, Cosas Perdidas, was released last month. In his own words, it is “an honest collection of songs” and shows more maturity in his lyrics and compositions than its predecessor, Presente.

While you were enjoying your weekend (like me at Camden Crawl Dublin), you may have missed a couple of Four Tet related things. Firstly, a new 12″ single will be released on Kieran Hebden’s own TEXT label with the exploratory twinkle of A-side ‘Jupiters’ leading the way before B-side ‘Ocoras’ goes for a more hypnotic dancefloor rapture. My personal favourite of the two.

Hebden has also remixed Neneh Cherry and The Thing’s cover of Suicide’s ‘Dream Baby Dream’ from that duo’s collaborative album. They have also in a roundabout way covered MF Doom’s ‘Accordion’.

SpaceGhostPurrp trails around a monochrome Miami in the video for the new rerecorded version of ‘Tha Black God’ from his forthcoming 4AD Chronicles Of SpaceGhostPurrp album. Get an instrumental version of the song at 4AD’s site. Get his God of Black mixtape.

It appeared that Azealia Banks was ready to derail her own hype train a few weeks ago. Cancellations of summer festival appearances, manager changes and a push back of her planned 1991 EP weren’t necessarily bad ideas. Banks needs to come correct with Broke With Expensive Taste as a killer debut album (it will be out in September) and perhaps taking her time with releases rather than rushing things out is a good idea. In the interim though, Ms. Banks will release a mixtape called Fantastic. This time around, Nick Hook and Hudson Mohawke’s huge hooks and tropical burst prove yet again that Banks can jump on big tracks and make it her own when she wants to.

Italians Do It Better were one of the first record labels to make a significant name for themselves through music blogs in the early days of the format circa 2007 and 2008. The label’s well-maintained blogspot, which is still in effect, became essential reading for bloggers who were interested in obscure heritage and rarely-heard artefacts of music past which informed the label’s own artists. The roster delved into Italo-disco, synth pop and moody dance music; all manners of shiny retro-obsessed electronic pop music. Here was an incestuous bunch of artists: Desire, Chromatics, Glass Candy, Professor Genius, Nite Jewel and label founder Mike Simonetti who shared the same aesthetic and eye shadow, who danced on the same dancefloors with the same sultry gaze, played the same synthesizers and hung out with the outsiders.

Early album releases from Glass Candy (2008′s B/E/A/T/B/O/X) and Chromatics (2007′s Night Drive) raised the label’s profile and were picked up by fashion and style crowd who were equally obsessed with aesthetics and last year’s Drive Soundtrack sealed the deal with a track each from Chromatics and Desire. A member of all three groups, Chromatics, Glass Candy and Desire, producer and auteur Johnny Jewel was initially drafted to make the soundtrack for the movie but his signature style ending up all over Cliff Martinez’s score thanks to his development and groundwork. Jewel would later release his unused soundtrack with Nat Walker as Symmetry, a two hour soundtrack of “claustrophobic cinematic bliss”.

So we arrive at Kill For Love, the Chromatics first full-length since Night Drive, which feels like a continuation of Symmetry and Drive in the cinematic disco noir stakes. What’s most striking about Kill For Love in today’s fast moving bitty music world is how indulgent, how decadent it is to listen and enjoy a complete album which has a running time of 90 minutes. The long format allows for epic explorations into long ambient passages. Over 17 tracks, the songs are given plenty of opportunity to get off the main timeline and to revel in movie-score like atmospherics.

Those diversions give a narrative feel to the remaining songs and add to the impression that you’re listening to an album from another time, another era. Jewel told Pitchfork he went through 10 different versions of the album and that it was mastered six times before it was released and that care and attention really shows. Starting an album with a cover is a brave, brave move and initially, the band’s cover of Neil Young’s ‘Hey Hey My My’ is a bit of a jarring opening for such a complete collection of songs but it, ultimately, reveals itself as a beautiful scene-setter.

There are a clutch of sumptuously put-together pop songs signified by synth melodies and beautifully direct female vocals from Ruth Radelet including the title track, ‘Back From The Grave’, the Italo clutch of ‘Lady’. ‘At Your Door’ and ‘The Page’. All are direct hits of what the Chromatics can do best in under four minutes. What gives the album its colour, are the aforementioned ambient passages and songs which take the mood into other territories, mostly on the second half of the record, which is split into two sides by the quiet arrangement of ‘The Eleventh Hour.

‘The Streets Will Never Look The Same’ is an eight and half minute propulsive synth jam with vocodered male vocals bringing the track to its buzzing end while ‘Running From The Sun’ is that song’s Side B brother. ‘There’s Light On the Horizon’ adds malevolence to proceedings with some sinister horror movie synth pings and a phone call narrative set to a sparse drum beat. It’s a beautifully affecting use of sound. The album’s last song proper ‘The River’ is one of its highlights. A reverbed Radelet leads a majestic motorik piano ballad into desolation and the album’s last large indulgence, a 14 minute ambient outro.

It’s a fitting luxurious end to an inspired album. Kill For Love is the pinnacle of what Italians Do It Better have been working towards since its inception. It really deserves to be taken as a whole (Jewel uploaded the whole thing to Soundcloud the day after he finished it). By echoing styles and atmospheres of the past, Kill For Love reminds us of the possibilities of the album format in the present.

Initially I was a bit skeptical about Trust’s music (that’s been happening a lot lately). The drummer from Austra in another band that sounds a lot like Austra with a guy singing instead? But I saw the duo of Maya Postepski and Robert Alfons play at SXSW and the songs were good (yes, they did sound a lot like Austra in fairness). ‘Sulk’ was my way in, a propulsive sickeningly-euphoric club goth track with a video that reinforces that feeling. I’ve yet to check out the Toronto duo’s album on Arts & Crafts but this newly released video is my reminder to do so. Luckily, the label put it up on Soundcloud so we can all hear it after the jump…

Every Friday, I pick out four new music picks from the best of the music blogosphere as part of my Day & Night digital section. Follow Day & Night on Twitter or Facebook. The magazine is out today in print with every copy of the Irish Independent. My picks for the week are up next…

Bondax

The gang of young English electronic producers making great music increases with the appearance of Bondax. The deft vivid production of their future garage tunes make it hard to believe these two are still in school in Lancaster and are too young to get into the club they should be playing in.

Somadrone covers Thin Lizzy

Neil O’Connor’s cover version of Thin Lizzy’s ‘Dublin’ replaces the original’s acoustic ballad vibe with some arpeggiated synthesizer. It was recorded over five hours in Brooklyn on a day the musician was feeling homesick.

Fiction

They may not get any points for an imaginative band name but it’s the music that matters and this London four-piece have spent all their idea coins on funky bass riffs, tropical guitar lines, moody vocals and extra percussion. Ideas well spent.

Swim Deep

If Arcade Fire downsized to guitar, drums, bass and keyboards only they might sound a bit like this Birmingham band; heavy on the reverb, starry instrumentations and cooing vocals.

Hudson Mohawke and Lunice have announced an official release of their collaboration of TNGHT. ‘Bugg’n’ is out on July 23rd and the duo will follow up their debut performance with a gig in London on July 21st. Pre-order the 12″ vinyl.

Lunice is playing Twisted Pepper tomorrow night in Dublin and I’m giving away tickets here.

Tomorrow from 5pm, Camden Crawl kicks off for the first time in Dublin. There will be 100 bands over two days in 15 different venues and you don’t find out until the day who is playing where, you only know who is playing each day (all the times, ticket and how the festival works is here). I can tell you that I am hosting The Grand Social on Friday and will have Little Xs For Eyes, Trophy Wife, Young Wonder and this fellah, Glasgow-based electronic musician Tom Marshall aka Dam Mantle on the lineup for my night. Dam Mantle has released a few EPs and an album First Wave on Wichita over the last few years that have ranging from bumping rap instrumentals to sample heavy chopup madness to a more classic electronic sound taking in house, juke, dark edgy percussive tracks and a Twin Peak-esque sample. I asked Tom some questions electronically. He responded via words also written electronically. Here we go…

How’s the new album coming along?

I’ve just finished a modest mass of music and I’m figuring out what to do with it – how to compile it; how I might adapt it. I often get swept up with making new things before I’ve presented anything, something will slip through I’m sure.

Your We EP was dense and had a more classic electronic sound. What inspirations inform the latest tracks you’re working on?

Yeh, I suppose the sound palette immediately echos a heritage, maybe the nature of the instruments.

Recently?

I think by the time you’ve collected together a body of music to present, the variety of music that’s been consumed has covered a fairly broad spectrum and there’s normally a fairly substantial gap between when something is finished and when it is presented.

But yeh I guess it comes from accessing a variety of music, and that is the central point.. so for example it might be that I spend my day making House with friends, come home listen to Hip Hop and go out and listen to Dub – all of this is consumed and characterises the output in some way or another.

Did the split release with Becoming Real feel like a collab? How did working on that release differ to working on your own release?

Maybe in the way that we were sharing music.. sending stuff we were working on back and forth etc.

The We release came from a select period of time using particular instruments, perhaps with the intent to sit next to each other. The track for the split was more just something I was playing out and wanted to get onto vinyl.

It’s so easy for producers to upload tracks to Soundcloud etc now that you often get good producers throwing up hastily made / half-finished ideas. How do you know yourself when a song is done and ready for the wider world?

I think I enjoy playing music out live in reality more or at least before it goes up on the internet, that’s where my priority lies. Playing something new to a small audience before it finds its way into some sort of public arena.

I guess you just know or feel when it’s right to put it into that realm, I like the idea of doing more short mixes, clusters of music that were listened to in the same space.

Do you DJ much? What’s the best and worst thing about DJing?

Well, yeh i think DJing in the widest sense is at the heart of all of this. Often I don’t feel like bowing to the pressure of playing out in environments where there’s this feeling of having to play this sort of constant peak, no foreplay. i prefer the idea of playing deep jazz or something to the two-o’clock-sweaty-club – the reality is that audiences probably aren’t gonna go with you on that.. and that’s cool, I’m happy on the other side of the booth to be honest. Saying that I mix a lot at home, I have done for a while and it’s probably what’s shaped the direction i’ve been going – it just tends to be that I get booked for live sets instead.

Similarly, what’s the best and worst thing about playing live?

I guess a negative is that if the DJs or acts before you in the evening are on a whole different tip then there’s only so much you can do in terms of adapting to the audience. I don’t know what the best thing is but I love it all.

What are your top 5 records at the moment?

Speakers Corner Quartet – Further back than the beginning
Hu Vibrational – Beautiful
Bullion – Say Arr Ee
The Coulson Unity troupe – Lateen
Polar Bear – Peepers

Who are your favourite producers at the moment?

Producers? im not always that concerned with what is going on currently, so much history to dig through..but… off the top of my head: Jonti, Mono/Poly, Floating Points, Kyle Hall, Herbert, Thundercat, Dimlite, Bullion, Matthew David… all sorts really.

What’s your favourite remix by you?
Not really sure i have a favourite, probably one that hasn’t come out yet or one that got turned down. Every track demands something different so my remixes are always quite varied. In a way most of the Dam Mantle stuff is a ‘remix’ of some sort, whether it begins from a sample or whether its reworking a jam that happened in real time.

And by someone else right now?

Some of the stuff Gold Panda’s been sending over is pretty great, I guess they’re remixes of sorts. Just heard the Hud Mo remix of Bjork yesterday, that was lovely, really stripped back and loose – hovers between movements really nicely.

What differentiates a live Dam Mantle show from the recorded material?

Tracks often gets taken apart a bit and reconstituted. sometimes I’ll play stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily release. Things maybe come together a bit, maybe it gives the tracks a bit of a stronger context when they’re layed out along side each other.

It seems from the outside like Glasgow has a good electronic scene at the moment. Can you give us an accurate picture of what’s going on there, where it’s happening and who’s doing it?

No probably not, it’s whatever it is to the individual. but yeh I’d say it was good, it does tend to be dominated by this 11pm-3am mentality of dashing to a peak and staying there, trying to overtly retain the attention span of the audience etc etc. This is not necessarily a bad thing, I’m just drawing attention to how it might characterise part of the ‘scene’, If you like.. I wouldn’t say my focus is always on the electronic side of what happens up here, mind you. If it lacks anything it’s a decent jungle night.

Tonight, Greek electronic pop duo Keep Shelly In Athens play Whelan’s in Dublin with Ginnels and White Collar Boy while tomorrow night, they hit Cork for a show in The Pavilion with Young Wonder and previous remixee Sacred Animals before a slew of gigs around Europe.

The Athens duo have collaborated and remixed another duo, Dublin’s cinematic Solar Bears. The two came together for a track off Solar Bears’ new album SuperMigration called ‘Alpha People’. We thought it’d be a bit of fun to get the two talking about their music, influences, playing live and much more. Here’s what came out of the joint conversation. Kicking it off with John Solar asking the questions to Keep Shelly’s Sarah…

John Kowalski from Solar Bears interviews Sarah Keep Shelly In Athens:

What did you listen to as a teen? Were there any defining records that got to you?

We have been listening to much British music, Brit pop, dark wave…

Are you gearing towards an album?

Hopefully, early next year we will be able to release a full length. When we will get back home we will start up working on new material!!!

Do you feel any pressure after the response to your past releases?

Not pressure but it is going to be a new experience to us to record a full length, because until now we have been in studio to record one or two tracks each time, so the whole idea of the album is something interesting to deal with. It is part of the adventure. But no pressure, pressure never helps!

Where do you record and what is your approach to writing as a band?

We make music in our bedrooms then go to the studio lay the vocals over the tracks. In studio versions we only have electronics and vocals. When we start writing our music we never follow a specific way to do that, each time is different. It comes out with a natural flow.

That happens because until now, as I said, we only had independent EP releases so it was more like a matter of the inspiration of the moment. The only thing that matters to us and it is sort of like the Keep Shelly in Athens recipe is to make songs we like to listen to.

Do you concentrate on themes or write individual pieces of music?

Individual pieces of music, that is why some of our songs have two parts.

Has it crossed your mind to move to America given the demand over there for KSIA and the fact your label is situated in the States?

Nah not really. It feels like it is working out the way it is. We can still make music while based in Athens. To tell the truth all the inspiration comes from our hometown and country. Backgrounds, family, friends…

Is there anyone influencing you at the moment or any artist that has changed how you feel about creativity?

At Coachella, we had the chance to catch Radiohead twice. It is probably a cliche, as most people respect Radiohead, but what I have seen in their shows was amazing. Real artists playing their music with their souls while being perfect professionals at the same time. Nothing is random about success, I mean people who are working are always paid off for their dedication to what their doing. But this is always a thing to admire and to inspire.

Do you have any specific hopes for this year or are you just going with things as they happen?

We want to make more music and play more shows.. What else?

How much attention do you pay to reviews?

To be honest, especially while touring I don’t really read the reviews. When I get back I see videos, I read some of those and we all sit down say-after the whole experience is over – we will change this or we will keep this trait.

Where do you feel more comfortable? In the studio or onstage?

It is quite the same thing. Studio it is from where it starts and stage it is where it ends. I mean, in studio you write your music to communicate it at some point from the stage. So it is something like a chain and yes, it leads to the same thing which is playing music for the people. So there is always somehow that interaction between band and audience.

Sarah Keep Shelly In Athens interviews John Kowalski from Solar Bears:

How do you guys got together as a band? What was the thing that made you start working together on making music?

We met at college and met up years later to try out a track idea I had. It was very casual but it became more concrete after the reception our early efforts got online.

What is the part in the songwriting process you enjoy most?

That’s a good question. Often cases it is the melody surfacing and sometimes it can be an effect like distortion or saturation that has us smiling.

Is it something specific you draw inspiration from any time you sit down to make more tracks?

Films would be a main factor but relationships and recollection would be a strong second. It is hard to pinpoint inspiration or where to give credit to. I am not convinced we are actually creators in that ideas are given to us if we are open to them. I have an abstract image or a large creative cube that everyone chips away from. Maybe these things are pre-determined. That’s the beauty of the artform.

How important are the live shows for you? Do you long for that moment that you will be on stage and you will have the chance to be so close to your listeners? It is always a thing that fascinates me!

They are really important to us as a band. The rapport you have each time is adrenalizing. We like to
experiment with new tracks and new versions of older songs.

Have the local media and press have been supportive to you guys?
The local media have been very kind to us in particular Harmless Noise, AU Mag and Nialler9. It’s not something we take lightly and it definitely keeps us going.

How do you deal with that whole press thing?

Being as humble as possible. Whatever accolades you achieve can be stripped away at any time. The music
business follows trends more than talent unfortunately.

What have you listened lately that you found interesting? Are there any new bands you have discovered just now?

Lately we have been listening to a lot of Brian Eno. His work with Harold Budd and Cluster is truly momentous. He uses suggestion and emptiness to great effect. Todd Terje is someone I have been turned onto very recently.

Is there any time that you doubt about the life of the musician that we have chosen to live? Sometimes it is hard, right? living on the edge!

It’s hard financially but rewarding in every other way. Travelling is vital for perspective in my opinion. I
doubt I could visit all these places if I was working in some dead end office.

But, then music seems like a cure for our souls. Do you feel like what you are doing is helping you out sometimes to express your feelings in a so real way, through your music? What do you think of the greatest benefit you get from making music?

Music is very therapeutic and protective. I don’t know what it is and how it comes about but there is a healing
process involved. There is nothing I place higher.

I loved our collaboration! If we had the chance to do a cover together, which song would that be?

‘Aladdin’s Story’ by Death in Vegas.

Which places would you like to tour?

The Americas and Japan.

This was first aired in 1998 and my friend Ciaran recorded it for me on VHS and made a cover for it and everything. It’s up on Youtube but it parts are missing due to copyright claims. Here’s the full version via Vimeo. A great watch. RIP MCA.

Here’s a best of the Beasties mix.

The first MCA line of every song he appeared on:

Compiled by McCreesh from private pressed vinyl and homemade cassettes for Finders Keepers‘ new sublabel Cache Cache Records, the compilation explores the first wave of the new wave in Irish music of the time. From the garage of Dogmatic Element’s ‘Just Friends’ to the razor wobbly punk of The Threat’s ‘High Cost Of Living’ to The Virgin Prunes’ cacophonous ‘Twenty Tens (I’ve Been Smoking All Night)’ to Major Thinkers’ anthemic ‘Avenue B’, this is a brief history of a time in Irish music that is often forgotten yet pretty fascinating by the sound of this comp.

Strange Passion is out in July 13th. McCreesh has a radio show on Power FM with the same name.

Ireland in the late 1970s and early 1980s was in the grip of uncertainty. Conflict in the north, social conservatism in the south; both fueled by religious hegemony and a truly desperate economic situation. To be young in Ireland at this time was extremely tough with many choosing to follow the well worn path of emigration. For those that stayed many had little choice but to join the dole queue as employment opportunities were poor. However, those emergent windows to a wider world such as TV, radio and print were combining to fuel imaginations and plant seeds of disaffection amongst an increasingly sophisticated and pop literate youth desperate for change. Needless to say when punk entered the mainstream the cultural and social conditions were such in Ireland that a hungry and culturally savvy new generation were perfectly primed to tap its latent energies.

This was catalyzed by new youth scenes which sprung up particularly in the main urban centers such as Belfast, Derry, Dublin and Cork. Fueled by boredom, and antipathy towards society it was a time when the raw primitive sounds of punk began to absorb new ideas and technologies and emerging acts were reaching audiences on an unprecedented scale thanks to new magazines such as Hot Press and Heat, fanzines like Dave Clifford’s VOX and Imprint, and a determined focus on youth programming by the national broadcaster RTÉ. Awareness of what was happening in the UK and elsewhere was also significant in developing DIY culture in Ireland, with the sounds of John Peel’s radio show, music magazines like NME & Melody Maker, emerging record shops and independent distribution networks like Rough Trade all doing their bit to create new demand for content.

- Darren McCreesh.

Tracklisting

1. Dogmatic Element – Just Friends
2. The Threat – High Cost Of Living
3. Chant! Chant! Chant! – Play Safe
4. Virgin Prunes – Twenty Tens (I’ve Been Smoking All Night Long)
5. Operating Theatre – Austrian
6. Stano – Town
7. The Peridots – No Water
8. Choice – Always In Danger
9. PH – Last Days
10. Major Thinkers – Avenue B
11. SM Corporation – Accentuate
12. SM Corporation – Fire From Above
13. Tripper Humane – Discoland
14. Operating Theatre – Eighties Rampwalk

Highlights: Camden Crawl Dublin takes over most venues (Nialler9 night on Friday in The Grand Social), Lunice, Keep Shelly In Athens, the Trap Door Rapp Tour with Edan, Mr. Lif  and more; Amon Tobin, The Horrors.

This is the weekly list of recommended gigs taking place over the next seven days in Dublin published every Tuesday. All times are 7.30/8pm unless stated. Feel free to recommend events not present in the comments below. If you’re looking for tickets to sold out gigs try #ticketfairy on Twitter.

Ticket giveaways:

• Wednesday May 9th: Loney Dear, Gabriel And The Hounds @ The Grand Social (Enter to win tickets above)
• Friday May 11th:   Trap Door Rapp Tour: Edan, Mr. Lif, Paten Locke, Willie Evans Junior @ The Sugar Club
• Friday May 11th:  Lunice, Sixfoot Apprentice & more @  Twisted Pepper
• How to enter - Email freebies@nialler9.com along with your full name, your preference of gig and phone number before noon on on the day of the gig in question to enter.

Tuesday May 8th

• Ruby Sessions @ Doyles (€6, 9pm)

Wednesday May 9th

• Keep Shelly In Athens, Ginnels, White Collar Boy @ Whelan’s (€15)
• Loney Dear, Gabriel And The Hounds @ The Grand Social (Enter to win tickets above)
• Elvis Costello @ The O2 (€50 to €65)
• Lianne La Havas @ The Academy (€16.50)

Thursday May 10th

• Large Mound, The Spook Of the Thirteenth Lock @ Odessa Club (€10)
• Therapy? @ Vicar Street (€28)

Friday May 11th

• VerseChorusVerse @ Tower Records (1pm)
• Camden Crawl Dublin: ASIWYFA, We Are Scientists, Le Galaxie, Blacklisters, Dels, Jape & lots more @ various venues (€25 per day, €40 per weekend, 6pm sharp)
• Nialler9 @ Camden Crawl: Trophy Wife, Dam Mantle, Little xs for Eyes, Young Wonder @ The Grand Social (Camden Crawl ticket required, 7pm sharp)
• Trap Door Rapp Tour: Edan, Mr. Lif, Paten Locke, Willie Evans Junior @ The Sugar Club (Enter to win tickets above)
• Skinny Wolves: James Blackshaw & Alexander Tucker @ Unitarian Church (€15)
• DJ Izem’s Dublin Tropical @ The Bernard Shaw (Free)
• The Buzzcocks @ The Academy (€26.50)
• Amon Tobin DJ set @ Button Factory (€22.50, 11:30pm)
• Lunice, Sixfoot Apprentice & more @  Twisted Pepper (€12)

Saturday May 12th

• Camden Crawl Dublin: Gaz Coombes, Clock Opera, Mystery Jets, Dutch Uncles, Ghostpoet, Kwes, Rubberbandits & lots more  @ various venues (€25 per day, €40 per weekend, 6pm sharp)
• State vs. Camden Crawl Fringe event: The Notas, No Monster Club, Yeh Deadlies  @ The Globe (Free, 6pm-9pm)
• Camden Crawl Fringe @ Stag’s Head (Free, 6pm-9pm)
• Camden Crawl Fringe: @ JJ Smyths (Free, 6pm-9pm)
• Camden Crawl Fringe @ The Swan (Free, 6pm-9pm)
• Camden Crawl Fringe @ Cassidy’s (Free, 6pm-9pm)
• Alphabet Set: Decade III: Diamond Dagger, Maschine, Ed Devane, Safety Boy & other DJs @ U Bar (Free, 6pm-9pm)
• First Second Showcase: Lemonada & more @ The Twisted Pepper (10:30pm)
• The Horrors, Toy @ The Academy (Sold out)
• The Gloaming, Sam Amidon @ Vicar Street (€28)
• It Was All A Bit Black & White, Nanu Nanu @ Whelan’s Upstairs (10:30pm, Club entry)
• Space Camp: Rory Phillips @ Mother, Copper Alley (€10)

Sunday May 13th

• 12 Sundays  @ Bernard Shaw (Free, noon til late)
• Patrick Kelleher, Catscars @ Whelan’s Upstairs (€5)

Monday May 14th

•  The Dublin Blues Club feat. Republic of Loose’s Mick Pyro  @ Leeson Lounge
• Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets @ Olympia (€60)

The best of new album streams this week in A-Z form. See recent album streams in the category page.

Beach House – Bloom

Best Coast - The Only Place

The Cribs  - In The Belly of the Brazen Bull

Damon Albarn – Dr. Dee

Exitmusic – Passage

Father John Misty – Fear Fun

Geoff Barrow / Ben Salisbury – Drokk

Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship

Killer Mike – R.A.P. Music

Kindness – World You Need A Change Of Mind

Light Asylum – Light Asylum

Lone – Galaxy Garden

Niki & The Dove – Instinct

oOoOO – Our Love Is Hurting Us

Outfit - Another Night’s Dreams Reach Earth Again

Policia – Give You The Ghost

Richard Hawley - Standing At The Sky’s Edge

Royal Headache – Royal Headache

Slugabed – Time Team

Soul Clap – EFUNK

Tu Fawning – A Moment

I should probably hate this but it’s just an amazing pop song. It’s big, brash and juvenile like ‘Oh Mickey’. Just really dumb fun. I caught Icona Pop’s gig at Camden Crawl in London. It was super fun, like this song, just a big celebration of pop music played by two cool Swedish girls playing chopped and screwed anthemic electro pop with some random dubstep breaks. Good work. I hope this song is massive.

Also, this song:

A Joyful Slog is a one-hour documentary exploring the essential and necessary rise of do it yourself independent music culture in the last 20 years in Ireland by DCTV’s Community Of Independents with help from FMC Ireland. It features interviews with And So I Watch You From Afar, Halves, Owensie, Richie Egan of The Redneck Manifesto, Road Records, Jape, Leagues O’ Toole, Vincent Dermody of The Jimmy Cake and Whelan’s, Angela Dorgan of FMC, Nay from Harmless Noise, Gib Cassidy, Mick Roe of the Richter Collective, Cathy Pellow of Sargent House, Ed Hannon and yours truly.

RIP Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch aka MCA who died today aged 47 from cancer. It’s devastating news. His passing marks the end of the trio of Mike D, Adrock and MCA as a band, a unit, a rap group. We will never see the three of them finish each others rhymes in the flesh ever again.

The Beastie Boys define my teenage years. Ill Communication, Hello Nasty, Paul’s Boutique and Check Your Head are very much responsible for shaping my musical tastes. The cleverly placed snatches of samples from funk, reggae, country and rap albums made me want to explore those other genres of music. MCA was always the elder, the enlightened, the one who kept the other two mad hatters grounded in reality; both on record and in interviews.

Mark Richardson, writing for Pitchfork perhaps has best summed up the appeal of the Beastie Boys:

MCA was the best rapper in the Beastie Boys as well as the best instrumentalist, and he also directed some of their many brilliant videos. But he was never the “leader” in any way because this wasn’t a group that needed a leader. The Beastie Boys are ultimately a celebration of friendship. You find people you care about and who care about you, and you make a community with them. The Beasties, both as a group and as individuals, embodied this ideal.

Thank you Adam Yauch aka MCA aka Nathaniel Hornblower aka Nathan Wind aka Sir Stuart Wallace for your part in my life and the lives of many others whether that was through your music, your music videos, your rhymes, your silly characters, your spirituality or your activism. Your rasp will be missed. I’m off to throw eggs at passers by in your honour.

Full statement. Obits from The Guardian and The New York Times.

My very first website back in 1999 was a Beastie Boys fansite.

Watch the whole Beastieography.

Sunless 97

Body Weather is the dreamily pleasant song from this London trio which spends four minutes courting us with beautiful synths and vocals before sealing the deal with a Ridiculous Saxophone Solo. I blame M83.

Opossum

The debut single from this New Zealand band sounds like Beck collaborating with Air. Featuring the talents of Bic Runga and a former member of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Blue Meanies is a funky phosphorescent psychedelic jam.

Donora

This Pennsylvanian band rival The Go! Team in the fun stakes on And Then The Girls, an upbeat happy song set to visuals from a roller disco that really couldn’t fail to cheer anyone up.

Emma Louise

This Queensland singer-songwriter is already well on her way to success in Australia and even has the “song on Grey’s Anatomy” box ticked off. Jungle is the song that has been turning industry heads.

Next weekend, Camden Crawl will take place for the first time outside of its London home in Dublin on Friday May 11th and Saturday May 12th. The city festival is taking over 15 venues across the city with around 100 bands both Irish and international, including Ghostpoet, And So I Watch You From Afar, Jape, Clock Opera, Dels, We Are Scientists, Mystery Jets, Gaz Coombes, Dam Mantle, Rubberbandits, Kwes, Le Galaxie, SertOne, Little Exes For Eyes, Bastille, My Best Fiend, Funeral Suits, Young Wonder, Hush War Cry, D/R/U/G/S, Lemonada, Toby Kaar and lots more as illustrated above all playing.

The idea for the festival is you turn up on the day, receive your timetable and get exploring around the venues. Times will not be known until the day but I can tell you that I will be hosting The Grand Social on Friday night with sets from Young Wonder, Dam Mantle, Trophy Wife and Little Xs for Eyes (also hosting in Camden Crawl London this Sunday in The Monarch with Jim Carroll featuring Charli XCX, Disclosure, Cymbals and Willy Moon).

I’ve got four pairs of tickets to giveaway to 4 readers and their plus ones, thanks to Beck’s Vier.

To be in the draw, head over to this Facebook photo, give this page a like and tell me who the musical artist illustrated by 400 Facts is via email to freebies@nialler9.com with your full name. Competition closes on Tuesday at 6pm.

If you don’t end up winning, tickets are a reasonable €25 per day or €40 for a weekend plus fees.

Have a listen to the Camden Crawl Dublin mixtapes:

Mixtape #1.

After debuting themselves to the world in January, Galway garage band Dott have shacked up with Popical Island on their debut EP release. Mining the same ’60s girl-harmony rock ‘n’ roll DIY aesthetic that the Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls amongst others have been exploring of late, Dott also includes hat tips to ’90s alt-rock groups like Throwing Muses. All four tracks are kept very much on the distorted lo-fi buzz but the band’s penchant for a pop chorus shines through the static.

Upcoming gigs: Roisin Dubh, Galway May 17th. Eamon Dorans on the Green, Dublin, May 18th. Bourkes, Limerick, May 24th.

Now, here’s a good idea. Combine the two brightest electronic disco-dance bands in Ireland at the moment on one 7″. Synth Eastwood will release the multi-faceted collaborative vinyl which will feature a track each from I Am The Cosmos and Ships (Both bands share a member in Cian Murphy), artwork by John Cowhie (Goodtime) on May 25th with a launch on the same night.

Both tracks are stormers – Ships‘ ‘You’re Gonna Feel It’ sounds like the best of Chromeo (i.e. – A VERY GOOD THING) with a talkie bit intro setting the mood before the killer hook comes in while I Am The Cosmos‘ ‘Take What You Want’ is decidedly moodier but has a full on Italo vibe. More of these kind of releases please Ireland.

Are you ready for some dense cryptic rhymes? As one of the definitive voices of the Def Jux label, Aesop Rock moved to Rhymesayers after that label went on hiatus. ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ sees him claim back his title via a military reference and lyrics that are both intricately poetic and idiosyncratically formed. Business as usual but to quote Aesop: “anything less would be re-god-damn-diculous.”

Skelethon from Fifth Element , his first album in five years is out in July.

A video for the warming last track from Goodtime’s The Colours Of Darkness album, one of my most played vinyl albums of the last four months.

If you’re the kind of person who likes fun, then you will very much be interested participating in and/or dancing to, the live music show as performed by Yacht. Jona Bechtolt and Clare Evans are in town with band tomorrow night in the surroundings of the Workman’s Club in Dublin before they hit Belfast, the UK and mainland Europe. I’ve got some passes to giveaway to the DFA-approved all-out dance party which will feature Tieranniesaur, Catscars and afterparty DJ sets from Hidden Agenda and myself. Just drop me a mail – freebies@nialler9.com before tomorrow at noon to be in with a shout of getting the tickets.

Yacht dropped a new track last week, a cover by “an icon of the French avant-garde” Brigitte Fontaine.

Today is a good global day for Irish music on the internet it seems. Sacred Animals’ track appeared on The Fader, Cian Nugent’s Black Flag cover appeared on NPR, while REID’s new one debuted on XLR8R. ‘Miami’ is the Cork producer’s bid to kick off this summer and comes delivered in big bass, yearning synths and metal melodies pinging about the track. Reid is working on an EP of his own material and promises that’s all we’re getting til then.

In other Reid news, he’s just been announced for Forbidden Fruit and he has remixed Giraffage’s ‘Even Though’ alongside Teen Daze and Slow Magic for Kitsuné. Hear a bit of the track on this minimix.