• Martin A. Egan Tribute Gig

    In November 2015 we lost a wonderful and powerful presence on the Irish music and literature scenes, Martin A. Egan – singer, songwriter, poet, artist and all-round visionary. On March 3 at the Bello Bar in Dublin, some of Martin‘s friends and family will get together to pay tribute to him with music and words. The event will also serve as a launch for Martin‘s magnificent final album, A Man in Full. The line-up for the event will include Carol Keogh, Brian Conniffe, Brian Damage & Krysstal, Will Merriman, Tommy Keane, Ben Prevo, Sean Millar, Davóg Rynne, Robin James Hurt, Ruairi…

  • Droids – Vessels EP

    After a break of several years, Derry riffers Droids release their new EP, Vessels, on March 27. Recorded at Smalltown America Studios over the last few years, it’s a long time coming after their excellent, raw eponymous debut EP in 2012. Stream the first track to be unveiled from the EP, ‘Burn Down’: Vessels by Droids

  • Wild Rocket – Dissociation Mechanics

    Eclectic Dublin psychedelic groove-laden space rock outfit Wild Rocket have announced their second album is called Dissociation Mechanics. The five-track album will be released through Irish DIY record label & distro Art For Blind. In the meantime, check out their 2014 debut album, Geomagnetic Hallucinations: Geomagnetic Hallucinations by WILD ROCKET

  • EP Stream: The 202s – Up In Thin Air

    The 202s are a warm jumper of a band. Their sound is instantly familiar no matter which angle you approach it from, yet still comfortable and always enjoyable. Their specific brand of pop draws from a Bassetts assorted mix of music lover treats. Be it the Zero 7 ambience, the post-punk baritone vocals, those rock solid krautrock beats, the Yo La Tengo gentility or the glorious Kinks inflected melodies, all of the different sources trickle into the soundscape and provide a surprisingly large amount of enjoyment for even a casual pop culture obsessive. They’re the kind of group whose every…

  • 17 For ’17: TOUTS

    Three-piece Derry band TOUTS have quickly established a name for themselves in the local music scene and beyond by delivering incendiary live performances, underpinned with an ol-school punk attitude. Still in their teens, Matthew (singer/guitarist), Luke (bassist), and Jason (drummer) have opened for punk rock royalty in Derry’s own, The Undertones.  They’ve also played high-profile support slots and secured upcoming shows with Blossoms and The Coral. As a band, they have been sustained on a diet of stellar mod/punk rock throughout their formative years – who whilst indebted to pioneering artists – have quickly forged an identity of their own…

  • Starless and Bible Black: John Wetton and King Crimson

    In 1972, King Crimson were in a bit of a mess. The band had been one of the leading lights of Britain’s art-rock scene, taking the ideas and recording approach of The Beatles to an extreme undreamed of. Their 1969 debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, rewrote the book on what rock and roll could do, but line-up changes had destabilised the band over a series of albums to such an extent where the sole remaining member was guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp, everyone else having quit in the midst of a tour, deciding they’d rather play the…

  • Group Zero – Structures and Light

    With his primary project currently working on album number 4, Girls Names frontman Cathal Cully is to release his debut solo effort, Structures and Light under his Group Zero pseudonym. Released on February 17 on Touch Sensitive Records, like his bandmate Philip Quinn’s Gross Net electronic side-project, it projects the flip-side of their post-punk day-job, instead channelling the shadowy intensity along the lines of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, without ever approaching an over-reliance on nostalgia or pastiche. As Touch Sensitive & Cully himself say: The genesis of this newly discovered musical freedom coincided with a viewing of ‘Pyramid of Light’ by Heinz Mack from the post-war Dusseldorf based…

  • Fecking Bahamas – V. Ireland

    To say Ireland has an unusually rich track record in the realms of math-rock, post-rock and instrumental music would be something of an understatement. This is something Melbourne music website Fecking Bahamas (assumingly named after the latter-day Don Caballero song ‘Palms Trees In the Fecking Bahamas’) have copped onto, manifesting in V. Ireland, a new, 21 track compilation featuring tracks from the likes of And So I Watch You From Afar, The Redneck Manifesto and Abebisi Shank to lesser-known but no less sorcerous sonic conquistadors in We Are Knives, Val Normal and Psychojet. Their fifth-region specific compilation and their first release…

  • Compilation: Fecking Bahamas – V. Ireland

    To say Ireland has an unusually rich track record in the realms of math-rock, post-rock and instrumental music would be something of an understatement. This is something Melbourne music website Fecking Bahamas (assumingly named after the latter-day Don Caballero song ‘Palms Trees In the Fecking Bahamas’) have copped onto, manifesting in V. Ireland, a new, 21 track compilation featuring tracks from the likes of And So I Watch You From Afar, The Redneck Manifesto and Abebisi Shank to lesser-known but no less sorcerous sonic conquistadors in We Are Knives, Val Normal and Psychojet. Their fifth-region specific compilation and their first release…