• Video Premiere: Blue Americans – Apparition

    February 7, 2018 - By 

    Leftfield pop duo Blue Americans have just lifted the cloche on the video for ‘Apparition’, their fourth single in five months, and it’s once more a pristine, self-produced slice of vibing, somnambulant pop that begs to be listened to in a warmly-lit bedroom, well into the early AM. As with the singles that have preceded it, we’ve also found much allure in the genuinely leftfield, exploratory B-side, with Danny Ball production transforming Platt’s vocal on ‘Beetroot (What If I Was 1?)’ into very real moment of yearning. It’s out now on their own label, Oil Tape Records, ahead of the release of their debut album later this year. They’ve nailed it on…

  • Interview & Label Mixtape: Exploding In Sound Records

    February 7, 2018 - By 

    Formed in 2011, and based in New York City, Exploding In Sound Records is a tapestry of idiosyncrasy. Pile, for example, are regularly cited as the world’s greatest rock band. Big Ups’ Before A Million Universes was very possibly 2016’s finest noise rock record. The bubbling, emotional cacophony of Ovlov’s 2013 Am has developed its own posthumous devoted cult following, leading to the band reuniting for a second album; not to mention the label’s ability to function as an early outlet and jumping point for Speedy Ortiz, Porches, LVL UP and Palehound. It’s a community. Bands share members, shows and tours together, and there’s a very genuine…

  • Ciaran Lavery – Sweet Decay

    January 30, 2018 - By 

    From inauspicious beginnings in Aghagallon, one of Northern Ireland’s most talented and celebrated songwriters, Ciaran Lavery, has announced details of third album. Launched in Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on the same day, Sweet Decay is released on April 13, following on from his 2016 NI Music Prize-winning LP, Let Bad In. Totting up well over 80 million streams on Spotify, he’s one of our most poetically-gifted singer-songwriters, not to mention one of the most wilfully eclectic. As well as scattering soul, hip-hop or R&B on top of what was once a bread & butter strain of heartfelt, earnest indie-folk & chamber-pop, his short collaborative album with electronic producer Ryan Vail won high…

  • Tuath – Youth

    January 29, 2018 - By 

    We’ve called them, among other things, the North’s foremost purveyors of hepped-up-on-goofballs psychedelia, but the Letterkenny outfit Tuath release their latest EP, Youth on February 24. Primarily recorded & produced by the band mastermind Robert Mulhern, it follows almost a year on from Things I Don’t Know. Featuring a string of steadily-released singles they’ve been fastidiously putting out over the last 6 months accompanied by videos, they’re peering out gingerly from their their darkened corner of ‘gaze-hued trip-hop for dalliances with post-punk and indie rock, without losing that claustrophobic, nihilistic sound that puts them in a category of just one on the island. Check out their previous material on Bandcamp. Watch the…

  • 18 for ’18: Destriers

    January 29, 2018 - By 

    We continue 18 for ’18, our feature showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up, progressive hardcore quartet Destriers. Photo by Colum O’Dwyer As a hardcore fan, you often find yourself fighting genre jadedness. By its nature, every latest trend can seem yet another vessel that fits the sonic requirements but lacks dynamism or the genuine sense of vocal or compositional conviction that the foundations of punk are built upon.…

  • Public Image Ltd set to make first live appearance in Northern Ireland

    January 25, 2018 - By 

    In an astonishing coup, John Lydon’s groundbreaking avant-garde post-punk outfit Public Image Ltd make their first ever appearance in Northern Ireland, playing as part of this year’s Open House Festival in Bangor, in collaboration with the BBA Punk Weekender. PiL are set to play Bangor Seafront on Saturday, August 25. Founded by the then Johnny Rotten in 1978 as an experimental antidote to the pop establishment furure surrounding the Sex Pistols, a dub-heavy sound on debut First Issue drew – through its punk tint – noise and progressive rock by way of Jah Wobble’s dense low end. With Metal Box and subsequent releases pushed their music further into the avant-garde,…

  • It Takes A Village makes Second Lineup Announcement

    January 24, 2018 - By 

    Unique in its setting of the Trabolgan Holiday Village in Cork to offset the unpredicatable Spring weather, It Takes a Village festival runs from April 13-15, and has announced its latest set of bill updates. The Good Room-curated festival offers an ATP-esque alternative in the form of 150 self-catering houses and apartments, as well as 35 fully-serviced campervan sites, not to mention the host of nostalgia-invoking activities Trabolgan has to offer. Today’s line up update includes The Gloaming frontman Martin Hayes, alongside one of Ireland’s most respected traditional guitarists Steve Cooney. One of the Irish voices of his generation, Blindboy Boatclub brings his podcast live on Sunday. Landless…

  • David Kitt – Still Don’t Know EP

    January 18, 2018 - By 

    Preceding the March release of his eighth studio album, Dublin indie craftsman David Kitt has just released four-track EP, Still Don’t Know. An extension of the lead single from new album, Yous – out in March – the EP is out via All City Records on 10″, available to buy here in a limited run. Described by Kitt as “a travelogue within a dream, a jump-cut journey that crosses the globe. It’s one of those dreams you don’t want to wake from, where you want to go back under to piece the finer details together” it’s a soothing, typically stellar effort from the chameleonic Dubliner, who, since…

  • Brigid Mae Power – The Two Worlds

    January 22, 2018 - By 

    Firmly established as Ireland’s foremost purveyors of elemental folk, Brigid Mae Power releases her second album, The Two Worlds on February 9 through US label Tompkins Square. Her eponymous 2016 debut garnered unanimous acclaim from the likes of Uncut, Mojo, The Guardian and featured on NPR & BBC programming. The Two Worlds, recorded in Co. Down’s Analogue Catalogue Studio, looks set to consolidate Power’s standing amidst a resurgence of Irish music that has redefined the role of traditional music once more in today’s conversation. Here’s what Brigid had to say about the album: “Most of these songs were written in the last year in Ireland and they’re all about the different feelings I had…

  • Watch: Haunch – Twitching

    January 17, 2018 - By 

    The inaugural release from Robyn G Shiels’ new record label, Black Tragick Records, is one of major sonic heft from some of Northern Ireland’s pedigree bringers of the riff. After two years or writing and recording behind closed doors, Haunch release their debut album, Lay My Bones Beside The Others on January 26, and you can watch the video for first single, ‘Twitching’ below. Based in Larne – Larnia, for the rose-tinted – the band comprises Rory McGeown, Michael McKeegan & Willy Mundell, each of whose noisemaking chops are in no doubt, being current & former members of Therapy?, Throat and Dutch Schultz. A seemingly inevitable combination, the trio bonded over a mutual love of…