• David Kitt – Still Don’t Know EP

    January 18, 2018 - By 

    Preceding the March release of his eighth studio album, Dublin indie craftsman David Kitt has just released four-track EP, Still Don’t Know. An extension of the lead single from new album, Yous – out in March – the EP is out via All City Records on 10″, available to buy here in a limited run. Described by Kitt as “a travelogue within a dream, a jump-cut journey that crosses the globe. It’s one of those dreams you don’t want to wake from, where you want to go back under to piece the finer details together” it’s a soothing, typically stellar effort from the chameleonic Dubliner, who, since…

  • Brigid Mae Power – The Two Worlds

    January 22, 2018 - By 

    Firmly established as Ireland’s foremost purveyors of elemental folk, Brigid Mae Power releases her second album, The Two Worlds on February 9 through US label Tompkins Square. Her eponymous 2016 debut garnered unanimous acclaim from the likes of Uncut, Mojo, The Guardian and featured on NPR & BBC programming. The Two Worlds, recorded in Co. Down’s Analogue Catalogue Studio, looks set to consolidate Power’s standing amidst a resurgence of Irish music that has redefined the role of traditional music once more in today’s conversation. Here’s what Brigid had to say about the album: “Most of these songs were written in the last year in Ireland and they’re all about the different feelings I had…

  • Watch: Haunch – Twitching

    January 17, 2018 - By 

    The inaugural release from Robyn G Shiels’ new record label, Black Tragick Records, is one of major sonic heft from some of Northern Ireland’s pedigree bringers of the riff. After two years or writing and recording behind closed doors, Haunch release their debut album, Lay My Bones Beside The Others on January 26, and you can watch the video for first single, ‘Twitching’ below. Based in Larne – Larnia, for the rose-tinted – the band comprises Rory McGeown, Michael McKeegan & Willy Mundell, each of whose noisemaking chops are in no doubt, being current & former members of Therapy?, Throat and Dutch Schultz. A seemingly inevitable combination, the trio bonded over a mutual love of…

  • Landless – Bleaching Bones

    January 16, 2018 - By 

    Dublin/Belfast-based vocal quartet Landless are set to release their debut album in March 2018 on new Irish label, Humble Serpent Records. Landless was formed in 2013 by Lily Power, Meabh Meir, Ruth Clinton & Sinead Lynch, and subsequently released their Landless EP the following year. They’ve spent the last year recording in a variety of churches, corridors and other acoustically fascinating spaces with ‘Spud’ Murphy, who’s responsible for some of Ireland’s most important releases in recent years – notably Lankum, The Jimmy Cake and a number of Ireland’s finest. Entitled Bleaching Bones, we have good faith that the LP will be another feather in the cap of an Irish folk resurgence that…

  • The Number Ones – Another Side of The Number Ones

    January 15, 2018 - By 

    Back with another celebration of retro power-pop songwriting, following their 2014 debut LP, The Number Ones have just released their Another Side of The Number Ones EP. The Buzzcocks and, to a lesser degree of global dominance, Good Vibrations Records – think Protex, Rudi & the likes – injected the British invasion sound with lightning-in-a-bottle youthful insurgency in the late ’70s. Half a decade later, The Number Ones’ latest takes great pride in doing much the same across its twelve hasty minutes. Infectious, immediate, and essential for any fans of modern purveyors of garage pop – Oh Boland, Sheer Mag, and the aforementioned – or the band’s ‘sideline’ projects, Cryboys and internationally-renowned…

  • Plain Living & High Thinking: An Interview With Belfast’s Latest Promotion

    January 8, 2018 - By 

    If you’ve been keeping track of the Belfast live music scene lately, you might have noticed – despite well-intentioned pockets and open-minded promoters – that it’s somewhat fractured and currently lacking the infrastructure to cultivate a strong grassroots music community beyond those looked after by management and the likes. Two bands who have organically harnessed their substantial following in a very short space of time are the groove-strewn, endlessly soulful jam trio Electric Octopus – having toured the UK, look to extensively traipse across Europe in Spring following the release of their latest album – and stoner-doom outfit Elder Druid, who released…

  • General Fiasco Set For One-Off Reunion Show

    January 4, 2018 - By 

    Formerly the indie kings of Belfast, General Fiasco return for a one-off reunion show at Voodoo on Wednesday, January 31. The band, formed of Mid-Ulster natives Stephen Leacock and brothers Owen & Enda Strathern, gained notable popularity in the UK indie circuit in their stint together, before the trio’s last show together as General Fiasco took place in June 2013. Their early EPs & 2010 debut album Buildings, led to their featuring in the likes of The Inbetweeners, and in the years since their dissolution, they’ve performed together and apart in various guises, including with Oh Volcano and Franklyn. Tickets cost £10, and in the spirit of independent venue support, will only…

  • Hands Up Who Wants To Die Announce Lineup Change & Return Show

    December 18, 2017 - By 

    For several years, arguably Ireland’s finest noise rock outfit, Dublin’s Hands Up Who Wants To Die have devastated rooms across Ireland & Europe, led by the singular stage presence of one Barry Lennon. His ominous presence read death knells over the unified metallic discord conjured by Paul Clynes, Matt Hedigan and John Breslin – known for respected DIY-spirited acts like No Spill Blood, Wild Rocket and Vatican II. Two spectacular records rose out of that particular alchemy: Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo, and Vega In The Lyre. The band have announced Lennon’s unfortunate departure from the band with the following statement: “It’s been a…

  • Somadrone – Wellpark Avenue

    December 13, 2017 - By 

    Dublin producer Neil O’Connor AKA Somadrone has announced details of his forthcoming sixth studio album. The full-length follow-up to 2015’s stellar Oracle, Wellpark Avenue will be released on February 1. According to O’Connor, the album will mark a departure from previous outings. With “dystopia, LSD, Timothy Leary and TV music of the 1970s” all contributing to the sound of the album – elements of which have permeated his work over his two decades of activity – it will forsake drum machines and heavy synth usage in favour of a return to traditional song and instruments akin to his 2010 album Depth of Field. O’Connor has also said…

  • Comrade Hat – Ho Ho Hum

    December 13, 2017 - By 

    After the year we’ve had, it’s quite honestly surprising we’ve not reached another Gary Jules moment of collective despair, but fear not: Comrade Hat has it covered in a typically loungey, subversive fashion. Following up on his five previous Winter ‘festering season’ releases between 2009 & 2015, this latest EP, Ho Ho Hum, manages to smirk through winter’s grimace. It proffers five sunnily low-key ditties that dabble in jazz muzak, apocalyptic calypso [see ‘Driving Home for the Apocalypse-oh’] and and some swooning Stevie Wonderesque turns that bely its sinister undertones, offering another glimpse at the singular, surrealistic, oneiric sonic tapestry woven by Derry-based experimental pop songwriter and avant-crooner Neil Burns. To help set the scene, here’s the…