Seamus Fogarty shares new single ‘Heels Over Head’

Seamus Fogarty shares new single ‘Heels Over Head’

Ahead of the release of his second album The Curious Hand next month, Irish alt-folk and electronica alchemist Seamus Fogarty shares new track ‘Heels Over Head’.

Produced by Seamus and Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Wild Beasts), The Curious Hand elevates Fogarty into another bracket of artists doing fascinatingly skewed and modern and heartfelt things with roots-influenced and electronic music. He’s an evocative and thoughtful lyricist and melodicist as well as an inquisitive sonic explorer for fans of Alasdair Roberts, Will Oldham and Kieran Hebden.

This can be heard in the unabashed romanticism of ‘Heels Over Head’ as Seamus sings over droning wheezes and field recordings.

The visualiser features characters from the artwork that Fogarty drew himself.

Originally from County Mayo on the west coast of Ireland, Fogarty now resides in London, and the capital provides the canvas for The Curious Hand. It’s there in the starkly heartbroken ‘Seems Wherever’, written from the perspective of the tube system and the deep well of the city’s troubled soul, and in the stony-faced rush hour commuters in ‘Van Gogh’s Ear’, pouring onto train carriages “bound for Egham or Whimple or West Ham”. But The Curious Hand also reaches back to Seamus’ homeland and past in charmingly simple and direct ways. Midway through the title track, for instance, a sampled conversation between neighbours back in Mayo takes centre stage as the musicians set off down yet another new musical path. Elsewhere, on ‘Tommy the Cat’, a skeletal instrumental becomes a bed for a recording of a shouting competition in the West of Ireland.

Fogarty’s method of lifting sounds wholesale from his environment and tucking them into the folds of his songs like keepsakes, renders himself at once, artist and archivist as well as twisting the notion of the folk singer’s role as collector and custodian of stories, traditions and cultural curio.

The Curious Hand – released Oct 6th – is Fogarty’s first album for Domino and follows his debut full-length God Damn You Mountain (Fence/Lost Map) and 2015’s EP Ducks and Drakes. Seamus previously shared ‘Short Ballad For A Long Man’ – watch the video here -  and ‘Carlow Town’ from the forthcoming record – watch the video here

The Curious Hand is available to pre-order on limited-edition yellow coloured vinyl, standard vinyl, CD and digitally. 

Upcoming live dates

4th October – Old Queen’s Head, London Tickets

21st Oct – Ritual Union Festival, Oxford Tickets

3rd November – Christ Church, Castlebar Tickets

8th November – The Workmans Club, Dublin Tickets

9th November – Roisin Dubh, Galway Tickets

10th November – Phil Grimes, Waterford Tickets

11th November – Kasbah Social Club, Limerick Tickets

12th November – The Roundy, Cork Tickets

21st November – The Canteen, Bristol Free entry

22nd November – The Basement, York Tickets

23rd November – The Lamplight Club @ The Regather Works, Sheffield Tickets

24th November – The Hug & Pint, Glasgow Tickets

25th November – High & Lonesome Festival, Leeds Tickets

26th November – The Prince Albert, Brighton Tickets