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'Year Of The Horse' is on release now. A duet featuring Nina Hynes, the song was singled out for praise in reviews of the 'Monsters' album and received an Honourable Mention in this year's International Song Competition whose judges features the likes of Robert Smith, Ray Davies and Tom Waits. The B-side is the previously unavailable 'For Keeps', another duet, this one featuring Bennie Reilly from Little Xs For Eyes.

Listen now at Last.fm

Available to buy at Road Records, CDBaby, iTunes and at shows.

"Like all true pop outsiders, Herm – aka Ballinasloe man Kevin Connolly – recognises the power of self-spawned myths: he claims to have been discovered as a child 'singing in some bushes' on the Channel Island of Herm (hence, surprise, surprise, the stage name). Musically, Connolly navigates a woozy course between Tom Waits, early Pavement and Slint (while giving the occasional nod in the direction of Nick Cave, Spiritualized and The Beatles).

From this exotic gumbo of influences, he distills a frequently sublime marriage of the theatrical and the minimalist: on his soon to be released debut album, Monsters, Herm dabbles in ragtime folk, boneyard blues and jangly indie pop. A bit of a one-man orchestra on record, Connolly is, in concert, a little more willing to share the glory. Backed by the five-piece Hermanos, he subjects his brittle compositions to wide-screen make-overs, sprucing them up with pile-driver guitar chugs, rumbling fade-ups and oodles of art-rock riffola. Grandiose and earthy in the same heartbeat, Herm is a reminder that, sometimes, the best music is to be found in the eerie spaces at the edge of town."

- Eamon de Paor, Metro Ireland.