• Premiere: Cat Palace – Cat Palace EP

    Every once and a while you stumble across a voice that just stops you in your tracks. A self-proclaimed “devotional” artist, Dublin’s David Blaney AKA Cat Palace falls firmly within that bracket. Placed somewhere between The Blue Nile, Talk Talk, REM and Bonnie Prince Billy, his unaffected, ache-laced vocals and stripped-back acoustic liturgies forge to concoct something bordering on the mystical. Featuring singles ‘Cage’ and ‘Hear Me Lord’, as well as three other tracks, his debut EP commands, broods and sates in fine fashion, capturing an Irish singer-songwriter doing something very singular indeed. Cat Palace is released at Dublin’s Bello Bar on Saturday…

  • Watch: A Plastic Rose – Garavogue

    Having been described as “simple, beautiful and moving” by Rock Sound (where it premiered, no less), Belfast-based quartet A Plastic Rose have unveiled the video for the latest single, ‘Garavogue’. Directed by  vocalist/guitarist Gerry Norman, it’s a wonderfully understated accompaniment to the track. According to the band, the song is “an ode to Sligo where Gerry and Ian grew up and the Garavogue is the river that runs through the town.” A Plastic Rose launch their album, Flickering Light of an Inner War, at Belfast’s Mandela Hall on Thursday, February 26. Watch the video for ‘Garavogue’ below.

  • Watch: Villagers – Courage

    Having received its premiere on Lauren Laverne’s BBC 6Music show this morning, Villagers have unveiled the video for their new single ‘Courage’. Taken from the band’s forthcoming third album, Darling Arithmetic, the track is a typically exquisite effort from Conor O’Brien and co., beautifully propelled in its harmonic simplicity and lyrical incisiveness. According to the band’s YouTube page, Darling Arithmetic was “written, recorded, produced and mixed by O’Brien at home – the loft of a converted farmhouse that he shares in the coastal town of Malahide to the north of Dublin – revealing a single-minded artist at the peak of…

  • Hot Cops – #1 Babes

    Arguably one of the most exciting and idiosyncratic Irish indie-rock bands of a generation, Belfast-based three-piece Hot Cops are teetering on the brink of some great things in 2015. Released immediately off the back of their stellar double-single ‘Origami/Novelty’, the band’s new four-track EP, #1 Babes, coyly, often cryptically renders instability, heartbreak, and the human condition in first-rate, wanderlust-tinged lo-fi glory. Positively bursting at the seams with fuzzed-out tangents, earworming refrains and masterfully nonchalant hooks, the Carl Eccles-fronted threesome’s cunningly off-kilter, slacker-soaked anti-anthems instantly evoke their main influences in Pavement, Deerhunter and Cloud Nothings. At the root of that is…

  • R51 – Pillow Talk EP

    Belfast’s R51 latest EP, Pillow Talk, has got powerful weapons hidden in it’s arsenal. The release is awash with lush guitars, brutal riffs and a genuine excitement. The influence of the Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine is evident throughout. However, rather than parroting what those bands have done, the band seem intent on mixing these sources with their own voice to create something refreshing. Centrally though, the band seem intent on straddling that fine line between artistic and accessible and while they may not always be successful in that goal, they still knock it out of the park…

  • Premiere: Darling – It’s Just One Look

    Ahead of its release on Friday, we’re pleased to present an exclusive first look at the video for ‘It’s Just One Look’ by Dublin duo Gary Harding and James McGuire AKA Darling. Directed by Michael Kelly, the video is a wonderfully retro affair, capturing the band and their rousing alt-pop to a tee. In fact, their exuberance is perfectly tangible. The song is the follow-up to the band’s equally impressive 2014 singles ‘Echoes’ and ‘Sail Away’ and will feature on their new EP, also set for release on Friday. Pre-order it here. Darling launch the EP at Dublin’s Sugar Club on Saturday night.…

  • EP Download: Hot Cops – #1 Babes

    Few young bands excel at their respective genre as convincingly as Belfast-based indie-rock trio Hot Cops. Set to play our Independent Venue Week show at Oh Yeah Centre on Friday night, the band have just unveiled their new release, #1 Babes, a four-track EP of cunningly off-kilter, slacker-soaked anti-anthems that instantly evoke their main influences in Pavement, Deerhunter and Cloud Nothings. The EP was recorded by the band’s bassist Nathan Rodgers and mixed/mastered by Chris Ryan. Stream/download it (for free, if you so like) via Bandcamp below. #1 Babes by Hot Cops

  • Stream: Le Carousel – Destroy Us

    Belfast-based producer and DJ Phil Kieran isn’t one to rest on his laurels. Having dropped some of the biggest techno bombs around over the years, Le Carousel has seen Phil moving in a slightly different creative direction, with the focus more on the possibilities of live production and building layers of groove. ‘Destroy Us’, his latest single under the Le Carousel alias is snappy, tight and the flourishes of melody are so bright and cheery, you’d be hard pressed not to tap along. It’s a slice of electro-pop loveliness, basically. Don’t take our word for it though, have a listen…

  • Val Normal – Fly The White Flag of War

    The importance of editing should never be underestimated. It takes a lot for a person in any creative medium to step outside themselves and be able to recognize that, while you may be intensely proud of what you’ve made, some of it needs to be cut off to save the rest; a kind of apoptosis. Never forget that, while a cheeky wee guitar solo can be essential, after a point it’s just diminishing returns. It’s nigh on impossible to count the number of genuinely interesting prog rock songs that have been lost to unwieldy length and arrogance on the part…

  • Stream: The North Sea – Drinking Alone

    A song “about escape and times of thought and reflection”, Dublin five-piece The North Sea have released arguably their strongest single effort to day, ‘Drinking Alone’. The second single to be taken from their forthcoming debut album the song is a sublimed-composed slice of alt-pop “exploring themes of alienation and separation between a couple, realising there love has waned or changed”. The band have also announced a five-date Irish tour, taking place across February and March: February 22: Crane Lane, Cork February 25: Cobblestone Joes, Limerick March 5: Voodoo, Belfast March 6: Whelans, Dublin March 19: Roisin Dubh, Galway ‘Drinking Alone’ will be released on…