• Premiere: Mosmo Strange – L’etrange

    June 25, 2017 - By 

    Having ascended to the higher (and notably more well-attended) ranks of the live scene in the North over the last couple of years, Belfast quartet Mosmo Strange are a band that have always been as much indivisible with the low-end as they are lo-fidelity. A particularly spartan and stripped-back case in point can be found on the band’s new single ‘L’etrange’ – the lead track from their forthcoming Strangetapes release – is an untreated blast of strutting, desert-inflected rock featuring saxophone from Peter Howard of Derry’s Scenery. Have a first listen to the single right below.

  • Video Premiere: Waldorf & Cannon – Omit The Logic

    June 23, 2017 - By 

    Like very others in these parts, Derry/Donegal alternative multi-instrumentalist duo Waldorf & Cannon make a little go a very long way. With both members on vocal duties, Philip Wallace AKA Walford playing a Farmer Footdrum kit, guitar and harmonica, and Oisin Cannon on bass, their sound – bearing the imprint of the Pixies, Devo, Link Wray and Beck – is testament to the fact that the song, no matter how it’s wrangled or performed, reigns supreme. A highlight from their consistently idiosyncratic debut album, Old Dogs New Tricks, new single ‘Omit The Logic’ is an infectious beast featuring a guitar solo from Cahir…

  • Premiere: Aislinn Logan – So Loud/Dance With Demons

    June 19, 2017 - By 

    Having released her promising debut EP, Lost or Gone, last year, London-based, Belfast-born multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and vocalist Aislinn Logan is primed to release its highly-anticipated follow-up at some point in the coming months. Bolstered by an equalling compelling b-side in the form of ‘Dance With Demods’, new single ‘So Loud’ suggests some great things in the making. A wonderfully skeletal release that sees Logan’s knack for a burrowing melody and cutting refrain take centre-stage, it presents the artist as a real contender, with a voice and deep yet understated emotive flair all her own. Speaking about the single, Logan said, “So Loud…

  • Video Premiere: Lauren Bird – The Way Out

    June 9, 2017 - By 

    Having recently released her debut album The Inbetween, Strabane singer-songwriter Lauren Bird has made a name for herself on the live circuit in the North over the last couple of years. Making a little go a long way via just her vocals and ukulele, she delivers confessional lyricism, subtle-wielded truths and a strong knack for melody – something new single ‘The Way Out’ has by the bucketload. Undoubtedly Bird’s most quietly emphatic effort to date, it’s a maudlin and nicely earworming song from an artist whose pop prowess grows stronger by the day. Featuring animation by Gina Cuarán, here’s a first look at the video for…

  • Premiere: Rabble Babble – Joe’s Bust

    May 29, 2017 - By 

    Dublin young bloods Rabble Babble have shared the first of a trio of singles documenting the misadventures of protagonists Joe and Gal and their associates on a night out in Dublin. ‘Joe’s Bust’ is a straight spoken narrative written by bandleader Pa Ski and delivered by Molly Callan Cassidy detailing your standard undercover cop drug grab in a nightclub with enough fists flying and twists to keep us gripped, like we’re hearing the story through giddy ears on the next day’s rollover, mulled over a slow Guinness. Sonically it’s an affair that has as many funk and neo-jazz nods as it does post-punk and…

  • Video Premiere: Naoise Roo – Almost Perfect

    May 26, 2017 - By 

    Having left a considerable dent with her A Cappella cover of Roy Orbison’s ‘Crying’ back in March, Dublin chanteuse Naoise Roo is back with ‘Almost Perfect’, the fourth single from her exceptional debut album, Lilith. Launched last night in Dublin, the song is a masterfully melancholic and brilliantly candid insight into the mind of the artist, who has teamed up with Cork-based visual artist and filmmaker Chris O’Neill for the release. O’Neill – whose stripped-back, lo-fi visuals elevates the single to a whole new soul-baring realm – said: “Lilith is, in my opinion, amongst the finest albums released by an Irish artist in recent…

  • Premiere: Heliopause – Falling (Part 2)

    May 25, 2017 - By 

    Whilst you might know him for his distinctive animation work for the likes of fellow Northern Irish songsmiths Malojian, Robyn G Shiels and Our Krypton Son as Lumo, Belfast-based musician Richard Davis has also been crafting some exceptional sounds as Heliopause for a number of years now. Released early last year, his third album How Can We Laugh After This​…  married subtly-woven soundscapes with pining tales of redemption, and explored a range of themes and sounds over twelve tracks. A highlight from that, new single ‘Falling (Part 2)’ tussles with the powerful birth of attachment to another, a motif nicely reflected in the single’s (naturally)…

  • Premiere: Pinner – Head for the Bedlam

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    With the prospect of up to three new albums set for release before the end of the year, (presumed) Northern Irish punk-funk masked duo Pinner are back with a new video single, ‘Head For The Bedlam’. Released in advance of forthcoming radio single ‘Incendiary’ – which will be released ahead of Return of the Pin Vol.2: Bloody Murder Picture on June 1 – this new effort is a typically left-of-centre blast of wilfully DIY garage from the pair, whose penchant for and ease at genre-hopping should fully reveal itself on forthcoming full-length releases throughout 2017. In the meantime, have a first peek…

  • Video Premiere: Planting – Relatives

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    A highlight from the latest Culture Glitch compilation, ‘Relatives’ by Derry producer John McDaid AKA Planting is a track that marries somnambulism and morning light just as effectively as it blends spectral ambience with glitchy textures and rhythms across its four minutes. Lending the track a whole new layer of cinematic panache is its accompanying visuals, courtesy of Derry filmmaker Michael Barwise. Featuring a range of black and white shots – from static scenes and intimate moments to muted, semi-mystical moments of nature – it drives home the longing air of the music in compelling fashion. Have a first look of that below.

  • Premiere: Milky Teeth – Guess Again

    May 8, 2017 - By 

    Back in February we premiered ‘Sleepiness and Weary Wit’, the stellar debut single from Cork’s Milky Teeth AKA Robbie Barron of The Shaker Hymn and John Blek & The Rats. A single we said embodied his main influence in The Beatles, as well as Ed Harcourt, Elliott Smith circa XO/Figure 8, Friendly Fire-era Sean Lennon and Jon Brion, it hinted at some special things in the making for his forthcoming debut album. Fast forward three months and Barron is back with the similarly spectral psych-pop of its follow-up, ‘Guess Again’, a track whose subtly-symphonic, kaleidoscopic thrust and tone reveals the workings of an artist we’re certain…