• Watch: Future Islands – Seasons (Waiting On You)

    January 22, 2014 - By 

    Baltimore synthpop outfit Future Islands have released a video for ‘Seasons (Waiting On You)’, a cut from their forthcoming album Singles. Directed by longtime collaborator Jay Buim, the video features lots of typical cowboy imagery – as well as actual cowboys – and certainly taps into singer Sam Herring’s admission that the song is “…about love, letting go, learning from your mistakes and always feeling that pull….as time goes by and seasons change.” Elsewhere, the band’s trademark waves of pensive electronic sounds shine through, whilst time seems to have softened Herring’s signature rasping vocals – but that seems somehow fitting…

  • Q&A: Girl Band

    January 22, 2014 - By 

    Dublin-based quartet Girl Band have made a hell of a lot of noise in a short space of time. From last year’s gloriously curdling racket of a Blawan cover, ‘Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage’,  the band have been riding on a fresh wave of attention which has not only rekindled interest in their 2012 EP, France 98, but has also created something of a hypestorm around their latest single, ‘Lawman’. What’s particularly refreshing is that said hype seems to be justified – the aforementioned single is a six-minute beast of a thing; all dread-inducing basslines and frenetic percussion.…

  • Watch: Fox Jaw – Kerosene

    January 21, 2014 - By 

    Coinciding with downsizing their name from Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters, Limerick band Fox Jaw have unveiled the video to their punchy new single, ‘Kerosene’. Released on February 28, the single – taken from the five-piece’s forthcoming album, Ghost’s Parade – is propelled by a strutting alt-rock groove and raspy vocal delivery that combine to excavate wonderfully malevolent undercurrents. Watch the video – directed by Shane Serrano from the band – below.

  • Q&A: Hornets

    January 23, 2014 - By 

    Ahead of the release of their forthcoming new EP, No Faith, we chat to Sib, vocalist/bassist from Belfast punk metal band Hornets about the writing and recording of the release, recently expanding to a four-piece and what the next few months hold in store for the band. Photos by David Timlin. You’re set to release your latest EP in the coming weeks. How was the song writing process for these songs and what can we expect to hear? Yes, our new EP, No Faith, is to be released on the 31st March. The song writing process for the EP was much…

  • Stream: Ed Zealous – Diamonds For Eyes

    January 20, 2014 - By 

    Belfast-based quartet Ed Zealous have released ‘Diamonds The Eyes’, the latest single to be taken from their forthcoming debut album, Wired. A typically starry-eyed slice of dancefloor-flooding electro-pop, the three-and-a-half minute track comes after the release of the singles ‘Medicines’, ‘Thanks A Million’ and ‘Telepaths’. Check out our exclusive track-by-track preview of Wired here. Wired will be officially launched at Belfast’s Limelight 2 on Thursday, February 20. Go here for the show’s Facebook event page and win tickets to the show here. Stream ‘Diamonds For Eyes’ via Bandcamp below.

  • Gig of the Week: Daniel Avery, Replete & Chris Hanna @ Aether & Echo

    January 20, 2014 - By 

    Set to take place at the new-fangled Aether and Echo in Belfast, our Gig of the Week this week is a bill topped by electronic artist Daniel Avery, a man responsible for one of the genre’s finest albums of last year, Drone Logic. Supporting Avery on the night is Champion Sound-signed, Kilkenny artist Peter Lawlor AKA Replete and Belfast-based producer and DJ Chris Hanna. Tickets cost £10 and are available at the door. Go here for the show’s Facebook event page.

  • Belfast Film Festival: Dawn of the Dead

    January 16, 2014 - By 

    Following the sold out success of the Suspria live soundtrack in August, George Romero’s 1978 cult classic Dawn Of The Dead will undergo a live scoring by  Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin line-up on Saturday, April 5 as part of Belfast Film Festival 2014. According to the Waterfront’s official website, “The group produced a full score to the film and will treat Belfast audiences to thudding beats, wordless synthesized vocals, power chords and one of the most influential apocalyptic soundtracks ever produced.” A bona fide zombie classic, Dawn of the Dead (also known internationally as Zombi) was selected as one of The 500 Greatest…

  • Spaceman: A Harry Nilsson Tribute Playlist

    January 15, 2014 - By 

    Twenty years ago today – in January 15, 1994 – the towering, thoroughly one-of-a-kind musical genius of one Harry Nilsson fizzled out for good in a home in Agoura Hills, California. At the age of just 52 years old, the New York singer-songwriter bid farewell to a plain that he documented and distilled so incisively and astutely not only via his extremely eclectic original compositions but also in his various collaborations and innumerable reworkings of music written by peers and legends alike. Perhaps most famous for a song that he did not write – the timeless ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ from Midnight Cowboy…

  • Label Mixtape: Bella Union

    January 24, 2014 - By 

    In the second installment of Label Mixtape, we take a look at one of the UK’s finest ever independent record labels, Bella Union. Initiated in 1997 by Cocteau Twins‘ founder/lead guitarist Robin Guthrie and the band’s bassist Simon Raymonde, the label has went on to put out records – many of them debut releases – by some of the greatest songwriting voices of the last twenty years. With a implicit penchant for artists masterfully meddling in the realms of indie rock, alt-folk and dream-pop, the label won the 2010 Independent Record Company of the Year – an accolade very much coinciding with releases…