• Watch: CATALAN! – Ungoogleable

    The solo vehicle of Belfast-based, North Coast musician Ewen Friers, CATALAN! is also a project that is wonderfully collaborative at its core. On his recently-released debut album, Veritas, Friers is joined by a veritable cast of familiar faces, including Cheylene Murphy and Ryan McGroarty of Belfast dream-pop twosome Beauty Sleep. If you’re yet to experience that particular ensemble live, new single ‘Ungoogleable’ captures just how well this collaborative spirit goes. Bombastic and earworming in equal measure, have a first look at the song’s brand new video below.

  • Premiere: CATALAN! – Espionage

    Despite having played only a handful of dates since emerging in July last year, Ewen Friers’ self-coined insurgency rock project CATALAN! has made a considerable dent on the Northern Irish music scene over the last few months. His latest effort, ‘Espionage’ has felt like bona fide single material since we first caught wind of it at a show in Belfast back in October. In characteristic Friers fashion, it commingles wide-eyed hope with full-blown melodies, and fuzzed-out bombast with lyrics that bring defiant people in foreign lands vividly to life. Curated by Friers, CATALAN! play the downright unmissable Coaster in Portrush this Friday…

  • Line-Up Announced For Inaugural Coaster

    Hosted by Ewen Friers’ CATALAN!, New Pagans (pictured), fast-rising experimental alt-folk artist Joshua Burnside and Belfast dream-pop trio Beauty Sleep are amongst the names set to play the inaugural Coaster in Portrush on July 20. A self-proclaimed “summer gathering on the North Coast celebrating local music” the event will take place at the Atlantic Bar and Babuska. See below for the current line-up (including  The Thin Air DJs) below and go here to buy tickets, which are priced at a very reasonable £11.00 including booking fee.

  • Premiere: CATALAN! – Alive

    Back in July we presented a first look and listen to ‘OKA’, the debut solo single from CATALAN! AKA Ewen Friers of North Coast alt-punk three-piece Axis Of. What we said of that track (“whilst certainly redolent of the subtly anthemic and nicely bombastic alt-punk of the aforementioned North Coast outfit, explores new, socially-conscious territory) could be directly applied to new single, ‘Alive’. Featuring some great visuals courtesy of Tristan Crowe and Chrissie McGlinchy, it’s a fuzzed-out and perfectly trouncing effort that will almost certainly become something of a live favourite for the project in the coming months.