• Premiere: Empty Lungs – ‘Medicine/Bernadette’

    Ahead of launching it at Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on Wednesday, October 7, we’re pleased to present an exclusive first listen to the new double A-side from Belfast alt-punk band Empty Lungs. Tracked by Andy Coles, ‘Medicine/Bernadette’ – was mixed by Chris Ryan and mastered by Dan Coutant in New York – captures the Kev Jones-fronted quartet at their emphatic best. See below for the band’s upcoming tour dates and our premiere of the release. The online sales from Bernadette will be donated to womenonweb.org.

  • Watch: Participant – A Change

    Featuring images of 1980’s Ireland lifted from a VHS cassette of corporate videos encouraging tourism, the video for ‘A Change’ by Dublin-based musician Stephen Tiernan AKA Participant possesses a curious, otherworldly charm, wonderfully reflected in the track’s jittering, symphonic alt-pop spell. The first single to be lifted from Tiernan’s forthcoming Content EP, the track fuses heartfelt lyrics and field recordings & samples with acoustic guitar and burgeoning ambience; plinking synth notes and synth strings marrying in a haze of experimental pop triumph. Participant performs at Dublin’s Mercantile on Friday night as part of Hard Working Class Heroes 2015 (9.20pm –…

  • Stream: My Tribe Your Tribe – Ghost With You

    Following a packed summer schedule that included slots at Electric Picnic, Body & Soul, Valentia Isle, Spirit of Folk and Secret Village Festivals, eclectic Kildare duo My Tribe Your Tribe have released their third single this year, ‘Ghost With You’. With their debut album due in 2016, this cut fuses their anthemic pop sensibilities with jagged, alt. rock guitar lines and electro-pop synth use. They play The Academy Green Room this Thursday for Hard Working Class Heroes at 9pm, and you can preview the rest of their material on Bandcamp. ‘Ghost With You’ will be released on October 30, but you can stream it…

  • Watch: Blue Whale – Jack Irons

    Ex-drummer for the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam and Eleven, Jack Irons has an interesting and illustrious CV – one which he can (yet probably won’t) now add, “Title of instrumental banger by Belfast-based experimental band Blue Whale” to. A collaboration between the band, filmmaker Tom Hughes and contemporary dancer Maeve McGreevy, the quartet’s new single is a potent, wonderfully emphatic audio-visual creation, fusing Blue Whale’s bombastic, Battles-esque experimental instrumental rock with Hughes’ sublime directorial eye and a truly compelling performance by McGreevy throughout. The track was recorded by Start Together’s Ben McAuley and is available to download here. Blue Whale play…

  • Stream: Galants – Out of Sight

    It comes as no surprise that the five artists listed under the “influences” section of Dublin noise-pop band Galants‘ Facebook page read as a veritable “who’s who” of the genre’s exalted heyday. Evoking the varyingly shimmering, feedback-soaked lulls and barrages of the aforesaid imperial quintet – Dinosaur Jr., Teenage Fanclub, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Swervedriver and Yo La Tengo – their new single ‘Out of Sight’ presents a fleecy levee of fuzz with perfectly languid vocals, throwing back and looking forward in wonderfully realised unison. Throw in Connor Walls’ guest guitar solo – knowingly reminiscent of Lord J Mascis’s more intent-drenched lead forays – and you are very…

  • Stream: Edward F Butler feat. Katharine Philippa – Futures Full

    Ahead of premiering its (really quite brilliant) video tomorrow, we highly recommend taking five minutes out of your evening to stream ‘Futures Full’, the new single by Edward F Butler featuring Katharine Philippa. Easily two of Northern Ireland’s more idiosyncratic musicians over the last couple of years, a collaboration between the pair should come as little surprise to anyone who has kept up with their respective journeys to date. Having both featured in Oh Yeah Centre’s Scratch My Progress programme (NB: Butler in his previous outfit HOWL) ‘Futures Full – “a song about relationships, purpose and identity – melds the very best…

  • Watch: Runaway Go – Lover to Lover

    Belfast indie-pop duo Fiona O’Kane and David Jackson AKA Runaway Go have long earned their stripes as one of the country’s finest purveyors of the genre. With their boundlessly compatible vocal styles, the pair’s music has always burst forth with a vitality and joie de vivre that’s never wanting in the realms of pathos and perspective. With their debut album, Alive, set for release in November, the duo have went down the PledgeMusic route with the aim to secure its release. In the meantime, they’ve given us a taste of what to expect from the record in the form of ‘Lover to Lover’, a wonderfully…

  • Watch: LORIS – Crazy

    Set to play Bad Bob’s on Friday, October 2 as part of this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival in Dublin, Belfast electronic-pop quartet LORIS have built up a strong following since their inception in 2013. Speaking to BBC’s Across The Line back in May, the band said of their new single, ‘Crazy’: “We wanted [it]to be a really feel good song, and in true Loris style we wanted a big chorus. There are lots of different elements to this song, but we wanted the drums to really stand out to create a big sound. All the different parts make it really…

  • Watch: Ash – Machinery

    One of our favourite tracks from their sixth studio album, Kablammo!, Ash have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘Machinery’. Shot in Tokyo, the video sees Tim Wheeler performing the track in a snazzy karaoke bar, surrounded by a handful of people who fluctuate between looking rather confused and totally ecstatic. Either way, the drink is in, the sense is out and all is well. And what a hook. Ash play the following Irish shows in December: Tuesday, December 15: Olympia, Dublin Thursday, December 17: Roisin Dubh, Galway Friday, December 18: Cyprus Avenue, Cork Saturday, December 19: Dolans, Limerick Sunday, December…

  • Watch: White Sage – Kassetten Stimme

    Citing Cluster, Harmonia and Neu! as key influences, the Kraut-soaked dream-psych of Dublin artist Andy Walsh AKA White Sage is right up our Kosmiche-inclined street. Following on from his debut EP under the moniker, Way Beyond Our Means, ‘Kassetten Stimme’ – the first track to be lifted from his forthcoming self-titled LP – is a cunning canvas of weaving cosmic sounds, analog synths, found conversations and braying guitar shapes, driven forth by palpitating drum machine rhythms throughout. Released via Little Gem Records this Friday, September 25, the video for the track – a suitably warped, phantasmagoric affair – was also produced by Walsh. Speaking about…