• Video Premiere: Two Nice Catholic Boys – Never Wonder

    November 7, 2023 - By 

    Formed in 2020 as a collaborative music project between writer and illustrator Ruairí McCann and writer and filmmaker Maximilien Luc Proctor, Two Nice Catholic Boys smudged the lines between avant-garde pop and spectral ambience on two LPs, Cities in Stitches and Seconds, last year. It’s a wonderfully rewarding arc that the McCann and Proctor – who are also both co-editors of the film and music website Ultra Dogme – pare back with aplomb on their label debut, Three Cheers for the Distant Observer. Out on 21st November via one of the island’s finest indie imprints, Bluestack Records, the four-track that sees…

  • Video Premiere: Nick Carlisle – End of Terrain

    September 21, 2023 - By 

    Nick Carlisle is an auteur who has well and truly made his stamp on the landscape of DIY music culture in these isles. Originally from Dromore in Co. Down, the Brighton-based composer, performer and producer has deftly spanned whole soundworlds in projects such as Peepholes, Bamboo, Katy and Nick and Lean Logic. Last year, he even ventured out solo with his sublime, QFT Belfast-comissioned score for 1922 silent film Häxan. Pay attention and you’ll trace a revelatory journey that leads to his upcoming album Bloody Saturnalia. Taking its title from Sebastian Haffner’s Defying Hitler, it’s a self-produced effort that sees…

  • Video Premiere: Drew Makes Noise – Flame

    July 11, 2023 - By 

    As one-quarter of sadly-missed Northern Irish band Ed Zealous, Andrew Wilson played a sizeable role in soundtracking what’s long been held as the country’s indie heyday. But why look back? In Wilson’s case, it seems lightning most certainly strikes twice. Fast-forward to 2023 and the Belfast-based artist is digging deep to further his prismatic alt-pop craft as Drew Makes Noise. Where recent singles like ‘This Matter’ and ‘Hey’ were lysergic and widescreen in equal measure, new single ‘Flame’ is a feat of masterful restraint. One of several peaks from his stellar debut solo album Let The Whole Tape Run, it’s…

  • Album Premiere: Perlee – Speaking From Other Rooms

    April 21, 2023 - By 

    Four years this October, occasional TTA writer – and acclaimed Irish in her own right – Maija Sofia introduced the sublime dream-pop of Perlee. Comprising Saramai Leech and Cormac O’Keefe, the Navan-bred, Berlin-based duo have since carved out their space via Half Seen Figure and Slow Creature, two EPs distilling their finely-woven dream-pop craft to four each tracks each. Today, the pair underscore the status as one of the country’s most singular talents. Exploring “unconditional love, the banality of a capitalist society, destiny and self-realisation,” Speaking from Other Rooms is a debut LP that feels widescreen and prismatic in equal measure. Featuring highlights including lead single ‘Lampshade’, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs-inspired ‘Reckoning’…

  • Video Premiere: Caoilian Sherlock – Candidate

    March 6, 2023 - By 

    It’s mind-melting to think it’s been nine whole years since we featured Caoilian Sherlock as part of our Track Record feature. As well as pushing forward as frontman of indie-psych foursome The Shaker Hymn, the Cork musician has also carved out a distinctive path under his own name. On singles like ‘Sucker For Love,’ and last year’s four-track EP Big Child, Sherlock’s alternative folk pop has burrowed deep, authentic and earworming. Just last month, Sherlock returned with arguably his finest single to date ‘Candidate’. Produced and mixed by Brendan Fennessy, and featuring Shane Murphy on drums (with additional drums by…

  • Premiere: Akrobat – Zamalour

    February 23, 2023 - By 

    On 18th March, Dublin indie/art-rock band Akrobat play their biggest headliner to date when they take over Whelan’s for a show alongside BiG Fridge. The show is set to kickstart the latest incarnation of the Shane Regan-helmed band, with a line-up reshuffle cueing what’s set to be a busy few months. Ahead of the release of the first of two EPs in 2023 – Shank, which is due in April – we’re pleased to present a first look at the video for ‘Zamalour,’ one of several peaks from the band’s Rian Trench-recorded, wonderfully genre-spanning debut album, Jammed Space Movement. Created by Ray Beggan and Aaron Ross,…

  • Premiere: Feather Beds – Really Disney

    February 22, 2023 - By 

    Over the last few years, Dublin’s Michael Orange aka Feather Beds has proven himself to be one of the country’s most forward-pushing experimental pop auteurs. Spanning dream-pop, shoegaze, electronica, ambient, and experimentalism, his music has sedated, burrowed and curveballed in equal measure on releases including 2015’s ‘Ah Stop’. This May, the London-based artist and producer will release his highly-anticipated third studio album, Softer Measures. Having snuck a preview, we’re certain it’ll go down as one of the year’s most inspired, palette-spanning full-length releases. To help make the case, today, we’re very pleased to premiere the album’s lead single, ‘Really Disney’.…

  • Premiere: Niamh Keane – Imprints

    February 14, 2023 - By 

    Dublin singer-songwriter Niamh Keane is an artist fast on the rise. Hailing from Clondalkin Co. Dublin, the vocalist, pianist and violinist’s considered folk craft makes space for light and shade with a singular nuance. Her upcoming single, ‘Imprints’, is a textbook case in point. Set for release next Wednesday, February 22, it’s a gossamer ode to unconditional love that, across two contrasting chord progressions, gently pivots between a sense of darkness and release. “Imprints is essentially a tribute to that unconditional love that you are so lucky to feel from a grandparent or a parent,” said Keane, who cites Laura…

  • Video Premiere: Swimmers Jackson – Stripped Away

    February 10, 2023 - By 

    London-based Dublin musician Niall Jackson aka Swimmers Jackson returns with a video for his current single ‘Stripped Away’ featuring a very familar setting to many. The stripped back performance was shot in the iconic Peel Wing at London’s BBC Broadcasting House by Tom Andrews with post production by Ryan Phillips. Speaking about the video, Jackson said: “I kind of got nostalgic for all those sync performances BBC used to do in the 70s and 80s (Old Grey Whistle Test/Top of the Pops) with cheesy star filters and cutting edge effects for the time. I actually feel like I’m watching VH1…

  • Watch: Arborist – Dreaming In Another Language

    January 19, 2023 - By 

    With his 2016 debut album, Home Burial, Mark McCambridge aka Arborist underscored his arrival as one of the island’s most singular considered songwriting voices. Four years later, A Northern View – which was Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios – doubled down on his sublimely-crafted indie Americana. In the between, McCambridge has had his head down, plotting a release worthy of continuing a story that has already sprawled out magnificent. The result is An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros, a nine-track album that we’re sure will elevate Arborist far and beyond. Produced by Matthew E White at his Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virginia, it sees the Belfast artist explore…