• Premiere: A Ritual Sea – Seasons (Like You)

    July 19, 2018 - By 

    Set to be launched at Dublin’s Drop Dead Twice on August 9, ‘Seasons (Just Like You)’ finds A Ritual Sea mining pure inspiration from dream-pop, shoegaze and indie textures. The second single to be taken from the Dublin band’s forthcoming debut album – which is expected to arrive in early 2019 – the song explores the themes of fear, paranoia and falling in love, asking, as the band puts it, |if we ever really fully know another person; navigating the slow unveiling of our true personalities – changeable, unpredictable, and ever-shifting.” Filmed by Fabian Chombart in Lioux, a region in the South…

  • BICEP Announce Belfast and Dublin Dates

    July 18, 2018 - By 

    As part of a string of EU and UK dates, London-based Belfast electronic duo Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson aka BICEP will make appearances in Belfast and Dublin in November. As well as stopping out Belfast’s The Telegraph Building alongside Voiski (Live), Hammer and Schmutz on Saturday, November 3, the pair will play their biggest Dublin show to date at the Olympia on Friday, November 2. Tickets for the shows go on sale this Friday at 10am, priced at £27.50 and €31.40 respectively.

  • Chvrches Set For Irish Shows

    July 17, 2018 - By 

    As part of a UK and Irish tour to kick off the year, it’s been announced that Chvrches will play two Irish shows in February. The Scottish synth-pop trio – who have just released their acclaimed third studio album Love Is Dead – will play Belfast’s Ulster Hall on February 19 and Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on February 21. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am from Ticketmaster.

  • Premiere: CATALAN! – Espionage

    July 16, 2018 - By 

    Despite having played only a handful of dates since emerging in July last year, Ewen Friers’ self-coined insurgency rock project CATALAN! has made a considerable dent on the Northern Irish music scene over the last few months. His latest effort, ‘Espionage’ has felt like bona fide single material since we first caught wind of it at a show in Belfast back in October. In characteristic Friers fashion, it commingles wide-eyed hope with full-blown melodies, and fuzzed-out bombast with lyrics that bring defiant people in foreign lands vividly to life. Curated by Friers, CATALAN! play the downright unmissable Coaster in Portrush this Friday…

  • Premiere: Dugout – Ride

    July 13, 2018 - By 

    One of several acts set to play the first ever Coaster in Portrush next Friday (July 20), Dugout are a new-fangled Belfast-based quartet whose debut single is a statement of intent. An earworming three-minute blast of Cuomo-conjuring indie-rock, the Ryan McGroarty-mixed, Rocky O’Reilly-engineered ‘Ride’ was, in the band’s own words, written about “that terrible job that we’ve all had.” Sealing the deal on the single is its video. Shot by Ciara McMullan and edited by Brendan Seamus aka BeeMickSee, it was filmed on location at Belfast venue Voodoo and features Dugout giving us a little preview of what to expect from their…

  • Track Record: A Ritual Sea

    July 17, 2018 - By 

    Donna McCabe from Dublin-based French/Irish band A Ritual Sea reveals some of her all-time records, including Benoît Pioulard, Cate Le Bon, Vangelis, Circuit des Yeux and Angel Olsen. Photos by Moira Reilly. Benoît Pioulard – Précis Benoît Pioulard is the moniker used by the American visual and music artist Thomas Meluch. Précis is an album that myself and Flo bonded over while living in two different countries and is one of the records we fell in love to. It got us through two year’s long distance, before Flo moved to Ireland. It’s full of layers of beautifully hazy music, produced with the lightest touch. It is intricate, delicate, dreamy…

  • Quiet Lights Festival Announced

    July 12, 2018 - By 

    Aiming to shine “a light on the new wave of Irish folk and traditional talent that are quietly forging new paths, recollecting old tales and making new stories” Quiet Lights is a new festival celebrating the new wave of Irish folk and traditional talent. With more to be announced, Katie Kim and Radie Peat, Lisa O’Neill, Ye Vagabonds, Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh, Slow Moving Clouds, Landless, Inni-K, Cormac Begley, Saint Caoilian, Dowry, Claudia Schwab and Elaine Malone are the first names announced to be play its inaugural outing in various Cork venues including Coughlan’s Live, Sirius Arts Centre Cobh, The Roundy, St. Peter’s…

  • Stream: Arvo Party – Tired Eyes (fear. LARKS)

    July 10, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of making his solo debut performance at Mandela Hall’s curtain call on July 27, Belfast musician and producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party is back with collaborative new single ‘Tired Eyes’. Featuring sublime guest vocals from Fiona O’Kane AKA LARKS, it’s a first-rate, FM-flirting electro-pop gem that not only confines within its unfurling four minutes Magee’s keen versatility as a producer – it doubles up as a stop-gap ahead of the release of Arvo Party’s second album, which is pipped for release next month. Details to be announced. In the meantime, give this a blast or two.  

  • The Coral Set For Belfast and Dublin Shows

    July 6, 2018 - By 

    Set to be return with their ninth studio album, Move Through The Dawn, on August 17, English indie rock five-piece The Coral will stop off at shows in Belfast and Dublin in November. The James Skelly-fronted band will play Belfast’s Limelight 2 on Wednesday, November 21 and the Academy in Dublin on Thursday, November 22. Tickets are priced at £20 and €25 and go on sale on Monday at 9am. Directed by James Slater, check out the video for the band’s brand new single ‘Sweet Release’ below.