• Irish Releases of the Week – October 30th

    October 30, 2020 - By 

    Another phenomenal week of Irish music, we’ve expanded this time around to feature full length releases, including Nealo’s long-awaited debut LP, Kobina’s phenomenal charity compilation -featuring Jape, Arvo Party and more – a Tuath & Lunch Machine collaboration, Bitch Falcon, Dunluvly, Rebekah Fitch, Mick Flannery, Jackie Beverly, Silent Ghost and more. Nealo – All The Leaves Are Falling Kobina – For Nora For Nora by Kobina Tuath & Lunch Machine – Mountains and Grooves Dunluvly – Something On My Mind Mick Flannery & Anais – Minnesota Rebekah Fitch – Game Over A.S. Fanning – All Time Jackie Beverly – Sea Glass…

  • Premiere: A.S. Fanning – All Time

    October 29, 2020 - By 

    We’re pleased to give a first listen to ‘All Time’, the lushly-textured new single from Berlin-based Irish singer-songwriter A.S. Fanning. A Nick Cave-ian gothic mini-fable, Fanning weaves personal neurosis through time and memory. Navigating the maelstrom’s dream logic, its subtly psychedelic layering and glistening production push toward briefly lucid moments of internal respite. Of the track, Fanning tells us: “‘All Time’ is a song about love and acceptance. Or maybe love and mercy, to borrow a line from Brian Wilson. I wrote it very quickly one night, it just sort of fell out fully formed, as sometimes happens. I was thinking about Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and the idea of being…

  • The Thin Air’s Alternative Halloween Playlist

    October 30, 2020 - By 

    Dire though it is we can’t get all get together for a big old Samhain soirée this year, the thinning of the veil is very much upon us. To mark the occasion, as per tradition, here’s our annual seventy-five track alternative Halloween Spotify playlist, featuring everyone from John Maus, Broadcast and The Cramps to Flying Lotus, Suicide and Throbbing Gristle.

  • clipping. – Visions of Bodies Being Burned

    October 26, 2020 - By 

    If your only knowledge of Daveed Diggs is his roles in Hamilton, Black-ish and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, then you’re in for a shock. A bit like finding that Neil Buchanan from Art Attack was the lead guitarist in a NWOBHM band, Diggs’ work with clipping. is a firehose of cold water. The trio, composed of Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes, have been putting out their brand of experimental hip-hop for the better part of a decade now. Since their debut mixtape in 2013, they’ve existed in that same space as Death Grips and JPEGMAFIA, embracing harsher industrial sounds, wrapped up in…

  • Irish Tracks of the Week – October 23rd

    October 23, 2020 - By 

    Tragically, it’s not a Bandcamp Friday. But it is a Friday, which means a rake of first-rate new music from right across the land. Here’s our pick of the lot from today and the rest of the week, featuring Seamus Fogarty, LAOISE, Kyoto Love Hotel, Arborist, JyellowL, For Those I Love, Eve Belle, Amy Montgomery, Sal Dulu, Wyvern Lingo and more. Kyoto Love Hotel – You Unfold You unfold by Kyoto Love Hotel Arborist – The Mountain Will Come to You/A Heart in Minor The Mountain Will Come to You | A Heart in Minor by arborist LAOISE – Healthy Seamus…

  • Video Premiere: Ferals – Separate

    October 23, 2020 - By 

    As with myriad other bands this year, Northern Irish alt-rock trio Ferals have had to navigate the pangs pitfalls of coronavirus over the last few months. Without question, the sudden reality of severance is right up there with the toughest of all. Today, the self-proclaimed “loudest band in Belfast” have re-emerged to take square aim at what being apart – both in the age of social distancing, but also on a much more personal level – feels like. Accompanied by a video splicing recent news coverage with original footage, new single ‘Separate’ is trouncing and earworming in equal measure. Lyrically,…

  • Monday Mixtape: Ben Harris (The Dreads)

    October 26, 2020 - By 

    Frontman of Belfast’s premier garage-psych proposition The Dreads, and would-be character in an M.R. James story, Ben Harris takes us through some of his Samhain favourites. Timberjack – Come To The Sabbat Sabbats were pretty much an invention by judges and inquisitors during the 14th and 15th centuries that became mythologized before people then started actually practicing their own sabbats themselves. I find this and cans are a great opener to any sabbat. The Electric Prunes – Shadows One of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar was an Electric Prunes song. It wasn’t this one. Grand Theft…

  • Matt Berninger – Serpentine Prison

    October 21, 2020 - By 

    Solo albums, for the most part, present artists with the opportunity to  indulge in experiments their bandmates would reject. Take Thom Yorke going fully electronic on The Eraser, or Sigur Ros’ Jónsi’s journey into  glitch-pop on his new album Shiver: Neither proved to be too much of a deviation from their main projects’ sound, but provided them with a detour that musicians often need to get out of their system between “proper” albums. The lowered expectations that can come with a solo album free up an artist to make whatever they want without restriction, and can sometimes lead to something…

  • Details of NI Music Prize 2020 Revealed

    October 20, 2020 - By 

    This year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize will go ahead with an online broadcast on November 12. Due to covid-19, the annual award ceremony celebrating Northern Irish music will take place at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre and streamed live via their YouTube channel. As well as performances from shortlisted acts Arborist, Careerist, Joshua Burnside, Kitt Philippa, Phil Kieran and Sasha Samara, it will feature live announcements for four awards: Best Album, Best Single, Best Live Act and the Oh Yeah Contender Award. The event is scheduled to take place during the Sound of Belfast 2020 virtual festival, which runs November…

  • Stream: Foolish Mortal – Ghost Wipe

    October 20, 2020 - By 

    “Ectoplasm sleight/Anchored down in your chasm right/Next he’s binning your bones/On the coast by your parents’ home”. Yes, Samhain is upon us once again and, as you can see by the opening lyrics to their new single ‘Ghost Wipe,’ Cork garage rock trio Foolish Mortal are already in the holiday spirit.  Comprising Mark Waldron-Hyden, Dan O’Sullivan and Laurie Shaw, the Cork band’s howling, amp-blown Halloween single delves into “the behaviour of a love rival who sucks the life essence from his partners”. The result is a spooked-out, all-too-short salvo that will have you reaching for that repeat button.