• Video Premiere: Chirps – Pink Noise

    August 21, 2017 - By 

    It’s been seven years since their debut album, Future Static Prologue, but Ballina-formed, Dublin-based shoegazey alt. rockers Chirps are finally gearing to follow it up with a second LP, from which we’re delighted to premiere first single ‘Pink Noise’. Featuring members of esteemed noisemakers like Hands Up Who Wants To Die, Wild Rocket, Crowhammer and Oilbag, their new album has been in the works over the last few years, gradually recorded by John ‘Spud’ Murphy – who’s also behind many of the finest independent Irish releases in recent years. A definite progression from previous work, Chirps have clocked up an astounding number of nods toward underground subgenres – most evidently shoegaze,…

  • Slow Place Like Home – When I See You…Ice Cream!

    August 18, 2017 - By 

    Long one of our favourite Irish acts – here they are as cover stars of our fifteenth issue – Donegal-based psychedelic electronic outfit Slow Place Like Home release their new album, When I See You…Ice Cream! on October 20. As with all Slow Place… material to date, it’s written, performed and produced by Keith Mannion. Written between Knather Woods in Donegal’s Ballyshannon, and the Algarve in Portugal, it somehow bears a sun-kissed somnambulance to match the cartography. The second single, ‘Echoes‘, featuring vocals from Fearghal McKee of ’90s cult Irish alt. rockers Whipping Boy, and album artwork comes from Derry artist John Rooney. The album was mastered by Morr Music’s Antony Ryan…

  • Stream: Slow Place Like Home – Echoes (feat. Fearghal McKee)

    August 18, 2017 - By 

    Long one of our favourite Irish acts – here they are as cover stars of our fifteenth issue – Donegal-based psychedelic electronic outfit Slow Place Like Home have lifted the cloche on their latest single, ‘Echoes’, featuring vocals from Fearghal McKee of ’90s cult Irish alt. rockers Whipping Boy. As with all SPLH material to date, it’s written, performed and produced by Keith Mannion. Released on August 22, ‘Echoes’ is the second single taken from the band’s next album, When I See You…Ice Cream, which is due for release on October 20, and follows their June single, ‘When I See You‘. The latest LP was written…

  • So Much For The Sun – So Much For The Sun

    August 14, 2017 - By 

    Lisburn doom-laden stoner rock/sludge trio So Much For The Sun have just released their debut album. Mastered by doom stalwart Brad Boatright, the album was recorded and mixed by Niall Doran at Start Together Studios – who has recently become the go-to guy for any production of noteworthy heft in NI. The band’s eponymous debut is a lengthy and dynamic affair, its samples and lyrics delving into sociopolitical commentary with a careful blend of clean and guttural vocals that’d see them sit well on any Desertfest billing. With the crushing low-end of post-metal & doom, its heaviness is framed within the midrange-bogarting fuzz of early…

  • Owlcrusher – Owlcrusher

    August 10, 2017 - By 

    One of the finest metal releases Ireland will see this year comes in the form of the long-awaited debut from Banbridge blackened sludge/doom trio Owlcrusher. Its three long songs – including the obligatory eponymous track – were recorded by Niall Doran at Start Together Studios in Belfast. The album came out on Seeing Red Records, and is available to order in a limited CD run, with vinyls in the works. A sprawling, funereal affair, it has harsh, distant, blackened vocals from guitarist Andrew Speir and evokes the crushing sorrow of the likes of Warning and low end devastation of Yob. Live, the band are a must-see. Owlcrusher…

  • Premiere: Joey Gavin – Rolf/Run

    August 8, 2017 - By 

    No stranger to provocative, accessibly experimental indie rock, the latest two-track from Thumper‘s Joey Gavin is called Rolf/Run, released on 7″ through prolific Irish DIY label Little L Records (Shamir, Homeshake, Alex Calder, Syd Kemp etc.). It’s a catchy psych-pop number whose acid-dripped King Gizzard-lite melody belies a more acerbic message, veiling a darkness even The Zombies would nary have attempted. It’s framed, as you might have guessed, around the shortcomings of institutional hierarchies, and the abuse of power that they’ve given rise to, without forgetting to check ourselves for letting it happen; evenly, he also explores the shortcomings of the witch-hunt that can, and does take place, it’s…

  • Eraser TV – Buzzfeed Depression Quiz

    August 3, 2017 - By 

    Just released is Limerick post-punk noise-pop act Eraser TV‘s debut EP, the wryly-titled Buzzfeed Depression Quiz, that tells you all you need to know about the wry wit of the trio. Featuring zero short, snappy numbers and a nine-minute epic celebration of languor, no compromise has been made on the EP, filled with all the trimmings, creases, and slightly-off guitar lines you’d hope from a band with nothing to lose. Buzzfeed Depression Quiz is a completely unselfconscious release, and is all the better for it. The EP was recorded and produced by Chris Quigley, self-released and available on Bandcamp on a pay-what-you-like basis. Stream below:…

  • GOURD/Luxury Mollusc Split LP

    August 1, 2017 - By 

    Two of Ireland’s premier doom-laden purveyors of noise release a split record on August 21st through Cursed Monk Records. Melding the suffocating, guttural blackened doom of Gourd with the harsh atmospheric ‘scrap abuse’ of Luxury Mollusc, the split opens with two longer tracks from Gourd and five snappier little numbers from Luxury Mollusc. It’s available to pre-order on cassette from Bandcamp. Stream the split below: GOURD/Luxury Mollusc by GOURD/Luxury Mollusc

  • Help Musicians NI Partner with Stendhal Festival for Henry McCullough Stage, Announce New Acts

    July 27, 2017 - By 

    To honour the life and career of outstanding guitarist Henry McCullough, who sadly passed away last year, Limavady’s Stendhal Festival – August 11th & 12th – have announced a Henry McCullough Stage, and new partnership charity Help Musicians Northern Ireland. HMNI curate the stage on Friday night, as well as the Oh Yeah Centre stage, and have announced the first wave of acts for their bill. As well as a distinguished solo career, McCullough was best-known for his time with Wings, and was famously the only Irishman to play Woodstock, where he played with Joe Cocker in one of the all-time great live performances.…

  • Tiny Magnetic Pets – Deluxe / Debris

    July 24, 2017 - By 

    Collecting krautrock grooves, ’70s electronica and oddball pop, Dublin outfit Tiny Magnetic Pets – named after the Japanese collectable toy – release their new album Deluxe / Debris on August 25 through Happy Robots Records. This follows up on their 2009 debut, Return of The Tiny Magnetic Pets and two EPs. Sounded at times like a prime-era William Orbit electronic pop production, featuring the kosmische space race synth sounds of the likes of Harmonia and Neu! – incidentally, the album features two collaborations with Kraftwerk’s Wolfgang Flür. Flür isn’t the only synth-pop fan either, with the band having built support from members of Visage & OMD, as…