• Premiere: Gross Net – Outstanding Debt

    As one quarter of globetrotting Belfast band Girls Names, Philip Quinn has rarely been off the road recently. Currently enjoying some repose before a new string of dates with Girls Names in Europe throughout the Summer – including a highly-anticipated set at Electric Picnic on September 3 – Quinn’s attention is currently fixed on his work as Gross Net, namely Outstanding Debt, a new seven-track release which we’re pleased to premiere here. The first release for Austerity Drive, it’s a compilation of material mostly drawn from “several aborted releases” that eschews Quinn’s usual guitar-based approach in favour of inducing a netherworld of varyingly…

  • Watch: Slomatics – Electric Breath

    Not merely one of the best heavy bands in Ireland, Slomatics are undoubtedly right up there with the finest harbingers of brain-bendingly, bone-crushingly hefty sludge-doom anywhere on the face of the planet. With their perfectly-honed live show at its razor-sharp best and a new studio album, Future Echo Returns, set for release via Black Box Records in September, the three-piece have re-emerged with a typically obliterating new track ‘Electric Breath’. The sonic equivalent of self-exorcism in slow-motion, it trounces in a way and with such clinically resounding execution that Slomatics and few others like them can muster. Created by Dermot Faloon,…

  • Video Premiere: Comrade Hat – Old Amsterdam

    Capturing the curious quality of a solitary city traipse on the continent, the video for ‘Old Amsterdam’ by Derry’s Neil Burns AKA Comrade Hat is as uniquely dreamlike as the track in itself. An experimental ambient-pop impression, it’s a nicely layered, bittersweet ode to the eponymous city, bridging “old-world nostalgia and knowing, 21st Century detail”. With a mini-album set for release in June, it makes for an immersive audio-visual encounter with a multi-instrumentalist sure to carve out his path more and more throughout the year.

  • Video Premiere: Oh Boland – Where’s The Beach?

    Ask anybody who knows their lo-fi from their Lulu, Tuam noise-pop trio Oh Boland are a rare breed of brilliant. Having first caught our attention with their perfectly ramshackle debut EP Oh! back in early 2013, they’ve steadily grown to be one of our very favourite “rural Irish kitchen sink bottle fed rock n’ roll” (their words, not ours – fitting, though. Very.) Accompanied by a short Irish tour in June (see dates below), the band’s mad infectious new single ‘Where’s The Beach’ – recorded by Liam Day at his Tuam home studio – will feature on four-track split cassette A Litany of Failures, also featuring Shrug Life, That Snaake and Junk…

  • Premiere: Strength – The Crying Game (Record Store Gay)

    One of our ones to watch in 2016, Derry’s Strength have really made their mark on the live circuit throughout the country over the last few months. Set to continue in that fashion with a show alongside Temper Drone at Whelan’s in Dublin on May 20, the Rory Moore-fronted outfit are also one of several Irish acts set to feature on this year’s Record Store Gay compilation, which is set for release – as ever – via the mighty Little Gem tomorrow (Friday, May 20). And what a cover they opted for: a synth-pop rendering of Dave Berry’s ‘The Crying Game’. A handful…

  • Premiere: Franklyn – Pleasure

    Even if you’ve only had a passing interest in Northern Irish music™ over the last few years there’s a strong chance you’ll already be somewhat acquainted with Belfast quartet Franklyn. Three-quarters of the sadly departed General Fiasco, the Owen Strathern-fronted outfit recently re-animated in style with single ‘We Don’t Want To Live’, an emphatic debut track “about people having the life beaten out of them, feeling like there is nothing you can do to change, losing your fight and not even being that bothered about it.” An equally assured effort clocking in at under three minutes, new track ‘Pleasure’ effortlessly underlines the Belfast band’s mission to write a…

  • Watch: Saint Sister – Madrid

    Having formed in 2014, Irish folk-pop duo Gemma Doherty and Mortan MacIntyre AKA Saint Sister have covered considerable ground recently. With their very well-received debut EP Madrid recorded in a short, “intense” session with Alex Ryan of Hozier, the release’s title track has been granted a sublime visual accompaniment courtesy of Bob Gallagher featuring lead Orla MacIntyre and some wonderfully rugged Irish countryside. Saint Sister play the following UK date in May. May 16: Gaslight Club, Leeds May 17: The Louisiana, Bristol May 18: The Islington, London May 20: The Green Door Store, The Great Escape Festival, Brighton (8pm) May 21: The…

  • Watch: StopTheWheel – ShakeUp

    How many ‘Campfire R&B’ artists can you think of off the top of your head? It’s a curious sonic genus, after all, and one that appears to be exclusive to Italian avant-pop explorer StopTheWheel AKA Francesco Candura. Taken from the (we hope and pray) Danny-Glover-in-Lethal Weapon-referencing Too Old For This Shit – an EP which be released via Dublin’s Little Gem Records on Friday, May 20 – ‘ShakeUp’ is his latest single. Accompanied by a video by Gustav Willeit, it’s all a bit tUnE-yArDs meets Royal Trux, Candura’s pitched vocals, 4-track production and measured acoustic patterns merging to create something that can only be described as borderline dangerously catchy.

  • Premiere: SlowPlaceLikeHome – Tiger Lilly

    Written, recorded, and produced in the forests of South Donegal, where all his previous releases have originated from, the new Double A-side single by Keith Mannion AKA SlowPlaceLikeHome reveals the workings of an artist constantly evolving his craft. Set for 10″ release on May 23, ‘Tiger Lilly/Friday’ sees Mannion move more toward the live setting with production. Where 8 minute B-side ‘Friday’ tells the tale of a self-styled magician and Coulrophobic called Friday, the former – which we premiere here – is a burrowing electro-pop gem that tells the story of reflective delinquency from the eyes of a night owl. Nice. SlowPlaceLikeHome play…

  • Video Premiere: Tuath – Existence is Futile

    A self-described multilingual experimental, progressive psych rock/shoegaze band”, Donegal’s Tuath (or tribe in Gaelic) have quickly established themselves as one of the country’s most singular propositions. With a heavy-metal influenced rhythm section and hints of jazz fusion woven throughout their sound, they are far from in the business of seeking slick categorisation – a fact impressively confirmed on their forthcoming second EP. Set for digital release on June 15, the lead/title from Existence is Futile is a downtempo gem that sits somewhere between a lamenting Madlib instrumental and a trip-hop inspired Praxis jam. Directed by Raymond McBride, the track’s accompanying video proves a suitable hallucinatory backdrop here. Check out our…