POSTS TAGGED : Open Window

Millions Like Us: A New Podcast In Conjunction w/ 604now.com

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Delighted to announce Millions Like Us, a new music podcast in conjunction with Vancouver news & culture site 604now.

Hosted by myself & craft beer, pastie and fast-food safari enthusiast, Justin Beats, we’ll be sharing great new music, some musings and general chit-chat, with a Vancouver slant, on a fortnightly basis. This is the first of what we hope is many, many podcasts and we’re looking forward to developing it further over the coming weeks and months. Not much else to say really, aside from thanks to 604now and we hope you enjoy the show (all feedback, good or bad, is most welcome).

You can read more on it here and listen to episode #1 below, and the tracklist (with links) is after the jump.

Episode #1 Playlist:

Faith Healer – ‘Cosmic Troubles’
White Poppy – ‘Confusion’
Sales – ‘Big Sis’
Danny Diggs – ‘Wino’
The Expert – ‘Devine’
Open Window – ‘0013 (Riot Tape)’
Villagers – ‘Courage’
Anderson – ‘Things We Have In Common’
Django Django – ‘Shake and Tremble’
Energy Slime – ‘Star On The Ground’
Hot Chip – ‘Started Right’
James Deen – ‘An Unwritten Love Song To Summer Roberts’
Sh-Shakes – ‘Little To Life’
Zen Mystery Fogg – ‘Pale Horse’
DRINKS – ‘Hermits on Holiday’
If you would like to get in touch? Email at millionslikeuspodcast[at]gmail[dot]com or on Twitter.

BarryGruff’s July 2015 playlist

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A now regular monthly feature, whereby we round up all the blog action with a nice, neat and handy playlist of tracks featured during the month.

July was pretty ace! We had new tunes from The School, The Stammer and DRINKS ahead of their respective, forthcoming new albums, and the return of WE//ARE//ANIMAL. There were excellent new singles from Neon Wolf, Galants, Lethal Dialect, Manor, Kelly Lee Owens, The Expert, Glass Sines and Koloto.

Also featured on this month’s playlist are great tracks from Bedbugs, Effin, Gwenno, Trails and Ways, Open Window and Joan. So, July was pretty good. And that’s all before mentioning that Justin Beats gave Jamie xx’s new record In Colour, the once over, Johnny Feeney reported from Knockanstockan and we had a chat with Trails and Ways. And the small matter of my albums of the year so far list.

Listen to BarryGruff’s July 2015 playlist below.

Open Window – ‘XX00’

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Formerly going under the guises of Sliab Cuinciu & Cuinciu, Open Window is the latest alias for Wicklow producer Ross McDonald’s superlative electronic output.

No matter the moniker, to date, he’s impressed a hell of a lot and firmly placed himself toward the top end of a rather congested bunch of Ireland’s emerging electronic producing talent. Aside from the chameleonic name changes, of late, he’s been busy amassing a solid collection of new material that is ‘XX00’. It’s a sumptuous selection of sound that draws inspiration from a wealth of hip hop, synth pop, disco and electronic influences (and an X-Files obsession). McDonald appears to have unearthed the deceptively simple, age-old secret to transcending influences: just craft top quality tunes, and how! An exemplary example of which is ‘0013 (RIOT TAPE)’, a powerful fusion of hip hop inspired, thumping beats, flourishes of electronic brilliance and shrewd sampling that delivers a clear and concise declaration from Black Panther, Fred Hampton. The production feels menacing, threatening and mightily dangerous as Hampton declares, “In plain proletarian worker’s language, it takes two to tango. As soon as these motherfuckers go, we go.”

You can sample some choice cuts from ‘XX00’ below and the full set is here. Also, you can listen to Open Window’s GruffWuff inclusion, ‘003 (Africa)’ – of which you can download the full 19 track compilation here for FREE.

Open Window plays Scrobarnach Boutique Music & Arts Festival on August 14th.

Celebrating 5 Years of BarryGruff with ‘GruffWuff’: A 19 Track Compilation Album [Out Now]

So, the day has finally arrived; ‘GruffWuff‘ is out now!

I’ve been itching to share this with everyone and I very, happy this day has finally arrived. The past five years have been very interesting and for the most part, ever so much fun. I think this is a pretty special way to mark the occasion and I really hope you all enjoy the compilation as much as I do. Initially I thought an idea such as this was just a pipe dream and one that would remain just that. However, the enthusiasm that met my initial inquiries bowled me over, I couldn’t believe how eager everyone was. It is something that’ll stay with me forever and it means an awful lot. Hopefully it will shine a light, brief as it maybe on some of the acts that have brought me the most joy over the past few years.

Thanks to Stevie for all his assistance, Caroline for all her support and putting up with me, Peter Lee for mastering & all the artists who provided tracks for the compilation. A huge amount of credit must go to the artists involved for their eagerness and the ever so brilliant music.

So, to mark 5 years of BarryGruff, here is ‘GruffWuff’; a 19 track compilation of new, previously unreleased and exclusive recordings from some of my very favourite acts over the past 5 years of blogging. There is an act by act guide after the jump, I really hope everyone enjoys this as much as we did putting it together.

It’s yours now, just ‘name your price’ – which includes zero, so technically it’s free.

Continue reading →

Celebrating 5 Years of BarryGruff with ‘GruffWuff’: A 19 Track Compilation Album

GRUFFWUFF Final

BarryGruff is 5 years old today!

Those five years have been interesting and fun. The blog has ebbed and flowed in parallel with my own life which has moved on somewhat from where it was back in March 2010. Since my early teens spouting about music has always been part and parcel of my life but I’m very grateful to have been in a position to share those musings and whatnot with a wider audience than my mates (or whoever is willing to listen).

Blogging has become quite a big part of my life and while listening to and discovering new music etc. is something that comes rather natural, a lot of my free time is devoted to the upkeep of the blog and how much longer I can continue to do so is anyone’s guess. It might be one year or another five, who knows? So with that in mind I really wanted to do something really special to mark the occasion and I’m pretty damn chuffed with this one.

Without further a do, to celebrate 5 years of BarryGruff is ‘GruffWuff’: A 19 track compilation of new, previously unreleased and exclusive recordings from some of my very favourite acts over the past 5 years of blogging. While I initially thought it was just a pipe dream and one that would remain just that, the enthusiasm that met my initial inquiries bowled me over, I couldn’t believe how eager everyone was. It is something that’ll stay with me forever and it means an awful lot. Hopefully it will shine a light, brief as it maybe on some of the acts that have brought me the most joy over the past few years. The enjoyment music brings me can’t be overstated, be it happy times or sad times, there’s one constant; music.

Thanks to Stevie for all his assistance, Caroline for putting up with me, Peter Lee for mastering & all the artists who provided tracks for the compilation. A huge amount of credit must go to the artists involved for their eagerness and the ever so brilliant music.

‘GruffWuff’ will be released through Bandcamp on Thursday, March 19th and the tracklisting is below for your perusal. I’m really, really excited for people to finally hear what everyone’s been working away on for the past 9 months.

Celebrating 5 Years of BarryGruff with ‘GruffWuff’:

01. Fold – ‘Where Are You’

02. Oh Boland – ‘White Boy’

03. Seazoo – ‘DIG (Demo Version)’

04. Mr Huw – ‘Bai Neb Ond Fy Hun’

05. Dan Amor – ‘Can’t Sleep’

06. Oisin McCole – ‘Far From The Sea’

07. Anderson – ‘The Way The Stream Flows’

08. Knoxville Morning – ‘Bridget’

09. Nathan Conway – ‘Babycheeno’

10. Disconcerting P – ‘Treated You Rough’

11. The Expert – ‘Swapsies’

12. SertOne – ‘Seventeen’

13. Imploded View – ‘Barry’s Game’

14. Channel Swimmer – ‘Racket’

15. Monto – ‘Yeuh’

16. Open Window – ‘003 (Africa)’

17. Captain Moonlight – ‘What is Property?’

18. GEM_DOS – ‘Mag D’Allen’

19. Hippies Vs Ghosts – ‘Three Shadows’