In anticipation of the release of debut album, Colt, on June 8 via Sacred Bones Records, Dublin-based artist Hilary Woods has shared a new track and video from the record, ‘Prodigal Dog’. Speaking about the visuals for the new single, Woods said “For Prodigal Dog, I set out to make a video that was slightly claustrophobic, cyclical, predominantly black in colour, one that traced the internal feeling from where the song was written”.

After the release of two critically acclaimed EPs, Woods spent 2017 writing and recording songs on an eight-track in an abandoned flat she was living in at the time. Layering piano, synth, tape machine, field recordings, vocals, drone, unadorned beats, and old string instruments, these songs culminate in her debut solo LP, Colt. Straddling the acoustic and electronic worlds, Colt is an intensely personal journey through grief, abandonment, and mutating love. Woods navigates this journey with a lyrical potency that cuts through stark piano, sensuous synth work, and textural acoustics. Somewhere between Marissa Nadler, Grouper and Julee Cruise, these songs evoke both the anguish of their content and the ecstasy of their craft.

Growing up in an artistic household on Dublin’s Northside, Woods studied film and literature, dropping in and out of fine art school. In 2014, she returned to music to record in whatever free space was available in and around the city. A singular vision and tenacious creativity has seen Woods cross multi-disciplinary thresholds, exploring visual and performance art alike. In 2017, she was chosen as Dublin Fringe Festival's “Wild Card” artist after writing a theatre piece from sound design. Whilst earlier in the year she was asked to compose an original score for a horror film as part of the Irish Film Institute's season celebrating the cinema of the Weimar Republic.

“Colt was created as a way to process and make sense of the everyday,” Woods imparts. “As a means to speak with inner voices, explore aloneness, and understand the complexities of desire. As a vehicle for imaginative flight, as a quest for resilience and connectivity to the outside world, as a medium through which to journey into the present, to temper the mind and inhabit the body”.

See Hilary Woods live:

11th June - St Pancras Church, London UK

20th June - Meltdown Festival, London UK w/ Moon Duo

14th Sept - The Sugar Club, Dublin IRL

Influenced by a wide range of music from Bob Dylan to J Dilla, Only Takes A Day combines spoken word influenced rap lyrics and sung hooks with live instrumentation. Having formed at a house party jam in the summer of 2014, vocalist and guitarist Shaanvir Rehal and percussionist Fabien Waldheim cut a separate path to the Americanised rap that’s homogenising commercial music right now. Their approach is uniquely their own, with Shaanvir’s lyrics often feeling like forays into his own head, while Fabien’s beats take the place of traditional sampling to provide an organic dynamism that can’t be achieved through machines.

With only one song in their repertoire back in September, the duo has expanded their setlist and their live presence in London’s music scene, headlining shows across the capital. Over the last couple of years, they’ve travelled across the UK to perform at festivals nationwide including Glastonbury, Wonderfields, Hazy Days, Subsonic and Homeless not Hopeless. Their artistic integrity remains their biggest draw, and in doing whatever they want they’ve ended up striking a chord resonant with the people they play for. Their endearing authenticity and classic musicianship feels almost radical in today’s Soundcloud rap climate, and as their art continues to expand, so too will their influence. It may not have taken a day, but rest assured their day will come.

Written by vocalist Shaanvir Rehal, ‘Reach’ is a conscious and dynamic display of lyricism that sidesteps the braggadocio of commercial hip hop to arrive at something both honest and infectious. Injecting hip hop beats with a masterly display of finicky acoustic work, Shaan’s track was the spark that got percussionist Fabien Waldheim involved in the project, and together the duo explore the bleakness and banality of pop culture with a song that’s life-affirming and touchingly relatable. ‘Reach’ explores the many contradictions in the modern condition: rampant materialism is a source of anxiety to many, but the promise of a more comfortable life through it is something we all, to some extent, strive towards. Unashamedly proud of his nerdiness, Shaan lyrically cuts something of a Gambino-esque figure, though possessed with a probing curiosity that penetrates further and lashes harder than his American peers. ‘Reach’ is a positive message. It tells us listeners that we are not alone in our thoughts, and that through expression we can find a connection with each other and the world around us that transcends our angst.