Comprised of three members of defunct post-metal five-piece Annapurna, TOSKA have unveiled their debut track, ‘Polyforms’ Featuring furious vocals from Aran Glover of We Are Knuckle Dragger, the track – impressively clocking in at just under ten minutes – traverses progressive metal tangents, intricate instrumentalism and cyclopean down-tuned chords, reminiscent of the band’s previous incarnation. Stream the track via Bandcamp below. Polyforms ft. Aran Glover by TOSKA
The fifth release on his own imprint, Kinnego Records, the chameleonic Barry Lynn AKABoxcutter has returned with a garage-tinged new EP, Shea. Currently based in London, the Northern Irish producer’s latest, three-track release is the culmination of its lead track being streamed early last year via Soundcloud. It features kaleidoscopic sleeve art by Nia at Star Fu and was mastered by Bob Macc at Subvert Central Mastering. Stream the EP via Bandcamp below. Shea EP by Boxcutter
Officially launched on Friday, July 18 at Belfast’s Flow Yoga Studio, we’re very pleased to present an exclusive first-look at the video for ‘Border Blood’, the new single by Belfast-based band Arborist. The lead single from the Mark McCambridge-fronted band’s debut album, Home Burial, the track was recorded by Ben McAuley – also a member of the band – at Belfast’s Start Together Studios. Several local musicians – including core members McAuley, Richard Hill and James Heaney, as well as the likes of violinist Luke Bannon and trumpeter Linley Hamilton – perform on the song. The video was shot and edited by…
As much a blessing as it it is a curse (priorities, man), not one, not two but three of the country’s finest summer festivals take place this weekend. Speckled across the country, in some of the most scenic surroundings imaginable, Forfey, Indiependence and Castlepalooza all have something unique to offer, their respective aural and visual showcases, bolstered by goodwill and a light ale or two, certain to make the most of the abnormally glorious weather we’ve been enjoying right across Ireland lately. Here’s a brief rundown of the festivals in question, as well as a couple of unmissable standalone gigs for good measure. The…
A highly-anticipated annual fixture at the breathtaking Charleville Castle in Tullamore, Castlepalooza 2014 will take place across the weekend of August 1-3. Super Furry Animals’ main man Gruff Rhys, indie-pop duo Summer Camp and Franco-Swiss DJ Gilles Peterson top the bill this year, with several Irish acts including TVVINS, Hurdles, We Cut Corners, The Clameens, Affleck and Ships also featuring in this year’s line-up. Buy tickets and check out full line-up for the festival – taking place across August 1, 2 and 3 – over at Castlepalooza’s official website and check out a live version of ‘Book’ by TVVINS below.
From September 2 to September 6, The Mac, Belfast, will present three classic plays by Samuel Beckett, executed in just one-hour long, rarely performed, piece. Not I is an intense monologue, set in a pitch-black space lit by a single beam of light. A disembodied female mouth floats eight feet above the stage and delivers a stream of consciousness, spoken, as Beckett directed, at the speed of thought. Footfalls tells the moving story of May, a ghostly figure who paces back and forth like a metronome outside her dying mother’s room. Completing the trilogy is Rockaby – probably the most famous…
Having inveigled with their seven-minute debut single, ‘Lawman’, back in January, Dublin noise rock quartet Girl Band have unveiled its equally inexorable successor, ‘De Bom Bom’. A potent and propulsive effort – positively not created with the airwaves in mind – it is wonderfully severe, spleen-stretching throwdown, clouded in fuzz and driven by a rabid, demented rhythm. Accompanied by a cover of Beat Happening’s ‘I Love You’, the track will see a limited edition 500-run 7-inch, released via Any Other City. With a string of dates with Metz and Slint on the horizon, Girl Band will support the latter pioneers at Belfast’s…
Featured none other than Gabriel Byrne, Rubberbandits have unveiled the brilliantly bizarre video for their new single, ‘Fellas’. Bound for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the plaster-bagged duo’s latest visual concoction (NSFW, you understand?) was shot and edited by Ray Sullivan. Watch the video below.
The follow-up to last month’s totally glorious ‘Big Unit’ – a track we called “nigh on four minutes of increasingly inimitable, dazzlingly unravelling, meticulously imaginative post-rock” – Dublin instrumental rock trio Adebisi Shank are streaming an equally anthemic masterstroke, ‘World In Harmony’. If sheer unbridled exhilaration required a soundtrack, the five-minute track – set to feature on the band’s forthcoming third album – would surely be in contention. Drenched in propulsive, rhythmic elation, the track is an effects and chant-laden triumph, making us just that little bit more (ok, quite) excited about the new record. This is the Third Album of a band called…
A self-proclaimed “cosmic forest-dweller”, fast-rising South Donegal musician Keith Mannion AKA SlowPlaceLikeHome has spent the last two years increasingly beguiling us with his sublimely somnambulant craft. Following on from a string of wonderful EPs last year – collectively bookending his extremely promising debut album, There Go The Lights Again – Mannion is set to release the ten-track Romola next month, an albums that us all but seduced already, thanks to singles, ‘She Comes In Colour Stereo’ and ‘Luna’. Accompanied with an exclusive remix stream of John Daly’s take on the former track (below), Brian Coney chats to Mannion about the inspirational value of isolation, the…