It’s all about Metropolis this weekend as Team Hot Press heads en masse to the RDS for Dublin’s new urban festival.
Needless to say, we’ll be tweeting, Instragramming and hotpress.com-ing the hell out of the Saturday and Sunday music and spoken word action.
To get you firmly in the Metropolis mood, we’ve another killer collection of downloads, streams, vids and trailers that won’t cost you a single cent.
Enya whets appetites for her Dark Sky Island album with this nifty YouTube sampler. The opus is out on November 20, the same day that Adele and Gavin James also go gunning for the Irish number one.

Colm Mac Con Iomaire has announced one of his biggest solo shows yet on December 17 in Vicar St., Dublin with Lisa O’Neill taking care of special guest duties. The Frames man, who’s fresh back from Australia, also has an ace new video.

Colm Mac Con Iomaire ⚏ Bláth (Flower) from Shane G. Mahon on Vimeo.

Ducky, Toxe and Len Leise star in NPR’s monthly roundup of the month’s choicest dance tunes. Also awaiting your aural perusal are Bob Dylan’s The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12, which includes a very different take on ‘Just Like A Woman’.


Also streaming this week on NPR are the tasty new records from Chris Isaak, quiet stormers Cool Uncle and the latest Kompakt ambient pop sampler.



Chance The Rapper is giving away ‘Angels’, a collaboration with fellow Windy City spitter Saba that has steel drums, loads of brass and a general air of funkiness.

Free Music Friday is delighted to make the acquaintance of Okada Tukero, Japanese purveyor of twangy Mark Knopfler-esque instrumentals. But better than that sounds!

If you’re suffering Alabama Shakes withdrawal symptoms – how good were they in the Olympia? – let us hook you up with The Suffers, a supremely soulful Houston outfit with loads of ‘60s style brass stabs and a singer who worships at the altar of Chaka Khan. We suspect that they’re absolutely killer live.


We’re indebted to Monique Kowalczyk who was in the front row on Monday night when Gavin James treated San Diego Casbah fans to a superlative cover of Brooooooooce’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’. Another fan, Rachel Peterson, found herself standing behind Gav the following night in Los Angeles’ Troubadour when he launched into Ray Charles’ ‘You Don’t Know Me’ with equal gusto. He’s also been performing the same ‘Billie Jean’/‘I Can’t Feel My Face’ mash-up that so enthralled the Hot Press Chatroom @ Electric Picnic.



Cranberries fans should check out @hogannoel3 where the band’s guitarist Noel Hogan has been posting some tasty new demos. Courtesy of a massive autumn clean, he’s also been unearthing all sorts of rare memorabilia which you can get a look at. It’s brought back lots of pleasant memories for our man Stuart Clark who wrote the band’s first press release and was paid with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, definitely the best afternoon’s work he’s ever done!

U2 fans counting down the days to their Belfast and Dublin shows can pique their excitement levels with this fan vid from their final night at the London O2 plus footage of what happened when her Royal Highness Patti Smith got up and jammed with her.

Here's @NoelGallagher travelling to London's O2 Arena ahead of his performance with @U2 last night #legend pic.twitter.com/u1RwKDXqar

— Damian Jones (@damianjones1) October 27, 2015

O Emperor’s Lizard EP is out today in limited-edition vinyl form courtesy of Dublin independent Trout Records. It features 'The Sky Is Your Oyster', 'Bogue', 'Switchblade' and 'Trash Club'. Made available digitally earlier in the year, it's proof - if any was needed! - of just how sharp the Waterford combo's songwriting has become. Catch them live in the Theatre Royal, Waterford (November 15); Sugar Club, Dublin (26); Roisin Dubh, Galway (28) and The Pav, Cork (December 3).


Two of the artists formerly known as Cashier No. 9, Danny Todd and James Smith, morph into exmagician for the November 20 release through Bella Union of the Kiss That Wealth Goodbye EP. Self-written and recorded with Northern Ireland go-to producer Rocky O'Reilly, the lead track is already piquing the interest of many a cross-channel tastemaker. "It's like early Beefheart meets Add N To X," says Danny. "David Holmes lent me a Korg MS-20 and then I bought one myself. That synth shaped a lot of the record."

"Blood and Gore, Intense Violence and Strong Language" promises the Mature 17+ warning that accompanies the Xbox promo for 'Listen To I Shall Rise', a new Karen O track accompanying the Xbox reboot of Tomb Raider. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman would make a brilliant Lara Croft, but sadly she's restricted to just singing.

We are loving ‘In The Morning’, the emotive new single from Dublin-based singer-songwriter Sean O’Brien, AKA Fields.

Delorentos have come up with a nifty vid for new single, ‘Home Again’, which was shot in Valencia by Podenco! The band have also recorded 12 new songs whilst touring round Spain. Check out [link]facebook.com/Delorentos/videos/vl.1497967820529626/10153091083220824/?type=1&theater[/link] to get a flavour of what they’ve been up to there.

After much teasing Coldplay have confirmed the December 4 release of A Head Full Of Dreams,their seventh album which has a bit of a disco thing going on apparently, and given us a first taste in the form of 'Adventure Of A Lifetime'.
Noel Gallagher, Beyoncé, recent Hot Press interviewee Tove Lo and Merry Clayton are among the guest vocalists on the collection, which is trailed by the title-track. It’s not exactly Chic or Funkadelic but there are cowbells and other dance flourishes courtesy of Norwegian production duo Stargate. 

Raved over in our new issue by the Metropolis-bound Mark Ronson  - “It’s impressive to see someone on their first album who has that kind of vision” -  FKA Twigs stole the show at last night’s MOBO Awards in Leeds with this stunning mash up of ‘Figure 8’ and ‘In Time’. Kate Bush aside, we can’t think of anyone operating at the moment who gives as much bang for buck on stage.


Grimes, another sensational stage performer, has three tunes from her Art Angels album streaming at [link]www.grimesmusic.com/artangels[/link]
The fabulous Martin Stephenson, he of the Dainties fame, is letting you try his Old House Jam album before you buy. Recorded during a trip to North Carolina earlier in the year, it’s a warmhearted gem.

Sherlock man Martin Freeman stars in the mean ’n’ moody video for Paul Weller’s new ‘Pick It Up’ single. In case you’re wondering, kids, that strange thing he’s hammering on is called a ‘typewriter’. People, including journalists, used to use them in the 1900s. Also, don’t go playing with chainsaws yourself at home.

Sir David Attenborough has gone viral - 1,293,301 YouTube views and rising! - with his narration of the opening scenes of Adele’s ‘Hello’ video. “Won’t Adele be cross with me?” he says to BBC Radio One DJ Greg James who proffers: “I think Adele would probably love this more than anything in the world.” Meanwhile, the original ‘Hello’ promo has been watched a staggering 223 million times.


And that ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls is the signal to down Free Music Friday tools and head to the RDS where we’re in the thick of the spoken word action. Do say “hello” and keep those links coming to @stuartclark66