• 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.

  • Preview: Women’s Work 2017 with Oh Yeah Music Centre’s Charlotte Dryden

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of its second annual return this weekend, Brian Coney chats to Charlotte Dryden, CEO of Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre and founder of Women’s Work NI to discuss what’s in store for the latter this year. Go here for the programme for Women’s Work 2017. Hi, Charlotte. Last year’s inaugural Women’s Work seemed like huge success. How was it from a personal point of view? Oh I was immensely proud and very moved by the support. The line-up for both last year and this year’s forthcoming second outing have been first-rate. But how did the festival bloom from discussion into…

  • Stream a 50 Track Thin Air Tuesday Throwdown Sampler

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    You know, we often get people asking us, “Hey, what kind of stuff do you play at your free, weekly Tuesday Throwdown in the Back Bar of Lavery’s in Belfast – a night that runs from 9.30pm until late and spans every conceivable genre under the sun, minus perhaps polka and classical music?” And to those people, we say: here’s a 50 track sampler – featuring everyone from Slint, Broadcast and Thundercat to Can, Julia Holter and Yo La Tengo – that you can expect to hear, week in, week out. We’re back there tonight, 9.30pm to late as usual.…

  • Watch: Stoat – Try Not To Think About It

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    A self-proclaimed “stylistically inconsistent” indie-pop/rock trio, Dublin/Wexford’s Stoat have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘Try Not To Think About It’. The title song – and third single – from the forthcoming new album, which is due in the summer, the band have said the track is in the “same ballpark” as Beasties Boys and Talking Heads. We can certainly hear that. See for yourself, and check out the single’s wonderfully DIY visuals.

  • Album Premiere: Aaron Shanley – Metal Alligator

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    Currently backed by a new band, The Horrortongues, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Shanley will officially launch his eleven-track, homemade mini-album, Metal Alligator, via Swallow Song Records at Belfast’s Voodoo tomorrow night. Having relocated to London, throwing himself into a heady maelstrom of writing and recording for both himself and others, Shanley took time to assemble this new release, the follow-up to Bedroom Tapes, released at the tail-end of 2013. Beginning on lead single, ‘My Mind Ain’t Pretty (At The Minute)’, Metal Alligator was recorded “on various devices” throughout 2015 and features multi-instrumentalist Shanley performing “vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, fristleism, synths, programming, sampling,…

  • Stream: Gadget and the Cloud – Continue

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    Cork producer Kelly Doherty AKA Gadget and the Cloud has returned with her strongest track to date in the form of ‘Continue’. A skilfully layered, emotively dense effort, the intent that underpins the single – which sounds like ‘Ful Stop’ by Radiohead re-imagined with euphoria and release firmly in mind – proves virulent from start to finish. This is a deceptively ambitious slice of downtempo, trip-hop inflected electronica that hits home and then some. Keep an eye out for Doherty’s forthcoming mini-album, Deceased Estate, which is set to drop at some point this summer.

  • Album Stream: FIXITY – FIXITY 3

    May 23, 2017 - By 

    Over the last couple of years Cork’s FIXITY have established themselves to be one of the country’s consistently intriguing sonic propositions. Composed and steered by Cork multi-instrumentalist Dan Walsh, the project’s explored in collective improvisation with other individuals three different releases, most recently December’s The Things In The Room. Tied together with masterfully loose conviction, new mini-album FIXITY 3 is is solo-produced album is a sprawling seven-track descent into free-form ambient textures, free jazz tangents and psychedelic colour. Performed and produced by Walsh, it’s a release that, in conjuring the more cosmically-inclined reverberations of Albert Ayler, Jessamine, Tortoise, Klaus Schulze and the Residents, offers…

  • Stream a new Twin Peaks-themed cover EP from Our Krypton Son

    May 22, 2017 - By 

    Unless you’ve been living under a very sizeable rock recently, you’ll know David Lynch and Mark Frost’s seminal serial drama Twin Peaks returned for its long-awaited third season last night. Marking the occasion in exquisite fashion, Derry singer-songwriter – and one of our featured 17 for 17 acts – Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son has unveiled a four-track, Twin Peaks-themed cover EP, Music From Blackfoot River. As well as Angelo Badalamenti/Julee Cruise gems ‘Falling’ and ‘Nightingale’ – both of which feature in the original Twin Peaks – the wonderfully lo-fi release features takes on ‘In Dreams’ and the the eponymous track…

  • EP Stream: Galants – Galants

    May 19, 2017 - By 

    In case you missed the memo: Dublin noise-pop quartet Galants rule. Evoking the varyingly shaded, feedback-soaked lulls and barrages of Dinosaur Jr., Teenage Fanclub, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Swervedriver and Yo La Tengo, the band have caught our attention on numerous occasions of the last couple of years. Something of a feature-length culmination of this particular phase in the journey to date, their self-titled EP – which sees David Kennedy, James McDonald, Colin O’Dwyer and Ruairi Paxton concoct some real magic over four tracks – has now been release on 10″ via UK imprint Zen Ten. Delve in below. Galants by Galants