• Stream: Zeropunkt – Bitch Nails

    February 26, 2019 - By 

    Long one of our favourites in the (admittedly bereft) Irish free psychedelic improvised scene, Dublin-based outfit ¡NO! have announced a name change to the substantially more Googlable Zeropunkt, and with it have issued standalone single, ‘Bitch Nails’, available as a free download. On the name change, the band are self-awarely oblique: “The 0ught of N0ught is the point of zer0. NO. N. 0. The zer0 Number. The p0iNt. Zeropunkt.” Following a quiet 2018 for the generally prolific – 10 albums since 2014 – outfit, this single comes with the announcement of two forthcoming LPs, Clap Your Hands Say No and Open War, as well as the announcement of…

  • 19 For ’19: Jordan Adetunji

    February 27, 2019 - By 

    We continue 19 for ‘19 – our feature looking at nineteen Irish acts that we’re convinced are going places in 2019 – with young Belfast-based hip-hop RnB artist Jordan Adetunji. Photo by Joe Laverty Still only in his teens, Jordan Adetunji has already shown a chameleonic, self-reliant instinct to a Prince-esque degree, highlighting the kind of restless creative spirit destined for the bright lights – successful modelling career notwithstanding – despite little precedent for his brand of hip-hop in Northern Ireland. Thankfully, the once-barren RnB scene in the North is taking shape, thanks to the support of Belfast artist group NxGen and prolific Ireland-based Word Up Collective – home to the…

  • Video Premiere: Casavettes – I’m Not Here, I’m Somewhere Else

    February 22, 2019 - By 

    It’s just five days from the release of Limerick emo trio Casavettes‘ debut album, Senselessness. One of the pillars of the DIY LK community, new single ‘I’m Not Here, I’m Somewhere Else’ is a low-key diversion from their anthemic early-Biffy inspired work, with its glacial guitar conjuring myopic images of that post-relationship confusion and detachment. Tastefully shot by the band and edited by Colm O’Shea, its non-linear monochrome video was inspired in part by All This Can Happen by Siobhan Davies and David Hinton, revealing lived layers of undefined beginnings and endings by dividing the frame in two. Artwork for both ‘I’m Not Here…’ & Senseless comes from Laya Meabhdh Kenny, with…

  • Watch: Post Punk Podge & The Technohippies – Full-Time Mad Bastard

    February 15, 2019 - By 

    Sure he only put out one of our Irish tracks of the year in ‘Never Coming Back’ at the tail end of 2018, but Post Punk Podge & The Technohippies‘ second EP, Post Millennium Tension, is with us, and so too is the video for lead single ‘Full Time Mad Bastard’.  Generally speaking, he’s one of the best at chronicling & satirising every social issue imposed by the elder half upon the younger half of the island’s consciousness. He’s is back with a hot new visage for the year, with an album in the works, he was one of our 19 for ’19 acts for good reason. …

  • Premiere: Maya Goldblum – Light Me Up

    February 15, 2019 - By 

    Content Note: Depression & suicide One of the growing number of Derry-based acts currently blurring genre lines and eschewing conventions, Idaho-born singer & guitarist Maya Goldblum – or Queen Bonobo in a full band setting – is set to release her debut album, Light Shadow Boom Boom, in May. Ahead of that, we’re premiering lead single ‘Light Me Up’, a buoyant slice of soulful jazz whose winsome face belies a diaristic portrayal of depression, as Goldblum brings gravitas and candour to a style of music currently underrepresented – at least in an artistic sense – in Northern Ireland. Maya had a chat with us about its subject matter: “Light Me Up stemmed from feeling constrained in…

  • Album Stream: Regret Will Come – Regret Will Come

    February 13, 2019 - By 

    We didn’t know about this until yesterday, but thanks to a rare bit of social algorithmic fortune, we’re sharing with you the new, self-titled album from lo-fi bedroom indie project Regret Will Come. At times a catch-all Bandcamp postcard of a solitary bedroom life unlived in the vein of early (Sandy) Alex G – see: ‘Tainaka’ – and at times vulnerably discordant and slowcore – there’s Duster all over ‘Akari’ – it was seemingly made to fit on the dynamic shelves of Exploding In Sound Records or some other unheard-of indie label out in the American midwest. Regret Will Come is comprised solely of Co. Monaghan auteur Fintan Gallagher, who writes, plays and…

  • Vampire Weekend Added To Trinity College Summer Series

    February 12, 2019 - By 

    Adding to the likes of New Order & Paul Weller in the already-stellar Trinity Summer Series, Vampire Weekend are set to play the Dublin College on July 1. This news follows the January release of ‘Harmony Hall’ and ‘2021’ taken from their forthcoming new album, Father of the Bride, set to come out this spring. Tickets go on sale from Ticketmaster this Friday, February 15 at 9am.

  • Album Premiere: Postcard Versions – Postcard Versions

    February 6, 2019 - By 

    Making good on the promise of last year’s debut single ‘Sunday Morning With Nate‘ – which came in at number 28 on our 2018 Irish Tracks of the Year and featured on independent compilation A Litany of Failures Volume II – Postcard Versions‘ debut album is here. Comfortably resigned and pragmatic in its optimism, Postcard Versions looks at a hungover languor as a chance for reprieve. Its 10 tracks never outstay their welcome, clocking in at just short of half an hour, making this another essential breezy indie rock album to add to Dublin canon alongside Popical Island, Tandem Felix & company – and it’s arguably the finest ever not to include a cymbal. Clearly a…

  • Brilliant Corners Announce 2019 Programme

    January 30, 2019 - By 

    Now in its seventh year, the tastemakers at Moving On Music have announced the programme for their annual highlight – and the country’s finest jazz festival – Brilliant Corners. The festival will take over various venues in Belfast across March 2-9, with a kickoff solo piano concert from Craig Taborn at SARC’s Sonic Lab on Saturday, February 16. As expected, it’s a wonderfully diverse patchwork of jazz and first-rate sonic digression in the spirit of MOM’s booking the year round. It’s appropriate then, that the two first-night offerings on March 2 are the Ulster Youth Jazz Orchestra Shabaka Hutchings’ unmissable apocalyptic synth-jazz project The Comet Is Coming, supported by…

  • 19 for ’19: Porphyry

    February 1, 2019 - By 

    We continue 19 for ‘19 – our feature looking at nineteen Irish acts that we’re convinced are going places in 2019 – with Derry artist Daryl Martin AKA Porphyry. Photo by Mickey Rooney “To explore the relevance of old philosophies and the art of the past in modern music, with layers of meaning created through leitmotif, musical allegory and literary references”. It’s no stretch to call Daryl Martin a genuine polymath. Based in Derry, Porphyry – named after the Roman Neoplatonic philosopher – is a fully-formed artistic vision, executed unlike anything else in Ireland. When we first 2017 debut EP…