Following on from our recent live session with Jape, our latest audio-visual snoop falls at Belfast-based alt/gaze-pop five-piece R51. Featuring the band in conversation, as well a performance of the pummelling ‘I Hate That Too’, the session was filmed and edited by Colm Laverty, with sound by Stevie Lennox and Michael Hanvey R51 release their forthcoming EP, Pillow Talk, on March 25. Make sure to check back for our premiere of the release and watch the live session below.
Belfast-based producer and DJ Phil Kieran isn’t one to rest on his laurels. Having dropped some of the biggest techno bombs around over the years, Le Carousel has seen Phil moving in a slightly different creative direction, with the focus more on the possibilities of live production and building layers of groove. ‘Destroy Us’, his latest single under the Le Carousel alias is snappy, tight and the flourishes of melody are so bright and cheery, you’d be hard pressed not to tap along. It’s a slice of electro-pop loveliness, basically. Don’t take our word for it though, have a listen…
The importance of editing should never be underestimated. It takes a lot for a person in any creative medium to step outside themselves and be able to recognize that, while you may be intensely proud of what you’ve made, some of it needs to be cut off to save the rest; a kind of apoptosis. Never forget that, while a cheeky wee guitar solo can be essential, after a point it’s just diminishing returns. It’s nigh on impossible to count the number of genuinely interesting prog rock songs that have been lost to unwieldy length and arrogance on the part…
A song “about escape and times of thought and reflection”, Dublin five-piece The North Sea have released arguably their strongest single effort to day, ‘Drinking Alone’. The second single to be taken from their forthcoming debut album the song is a sublimed-composed slice of alt-pop “exploring themes of alienation and separation between a couple, realising there love has waned or changed”. The band have also announced a five-date Irish tour, taking place across February and March: February 22: Crane Lane, Cork February 25: Cobblestone Joes, Limerick March 5: Voodoo, Belfast March 6: Whelans, Dublin March 19: Roisin Dubh, Galway ‘Drinking Alone’ will be released on…