• The Bonk – The Bonk Seems To Be A Verb

    October 7, 2017 - By 

    Having released a string of stellar singles over the last two years, Dublin & Cork-based experimental, orchestral, psychedelic garage rock project The Bonk released their debut LP, The Bonk Seems To Be A Verb, on October 6. Recorded over the last few years while the outfit have been together, it’s released on cassette through Drogheda arts & culture collective Thirty Three – 45. Although the project is based around the compositions of frontman Phil Christie – of O Emperor, the substantial cast of musicians credited on the album includes some of the island’s most respected artists & virtuosi: Phil O’ Gorman – Guitar Brendan Fennessy – Drums Jim…

  • Album Premiere & Interview: The Bonk

    October 6, 2017 - By 

    Having released a string of stellar singles over the last two years, Dublin & Cork-based experimental, orchestral, psychedelic garage rock project The Bonk have released their debut LP, The Bonk Seems To Be A Verb, and we’re delighted to premiere the entire album on its day of release. Recorded over the last few years while the outfit have been together, it’s released on cassette through Drogheda arts & culture collective Thirty Three – 45. Although the project is based around the compositions of frontman Phil Christie – of O Emperor, the substantial cast of musicians credited on the album includes some of the island’s most…

  • Autumns – Suffocating Brothers

    September 27, 2017 - By 

    Since starting out some time ago as a D.I.Y. shoegaze/garage-noise outfit, Derry’s Christian Donaghey has refused to sit in any one place for too long with his ongoing project, Autumns, releasing and echewing subgenre records for breakfast, lunch & dinner. Over the last couple of years, he’s grown into himself, really finding his place with his most recent EP. Finally, he’s released his debut full length, Suffocating Brothers on renowned Glasgow label Clan Destine after being written & recorded in the latter half of 2016. This material sees him continue to bring the intensely visceral Roland-fuelled rhythms of industrial & techno he’s adopted in recent times, melded…

  • Video Premiere: Tuath – Cuz Why!?

    September 25, 2017 - By 

    Arguably the northern province’s foremost purveyors of hepped-up-on-goofballs psychedelia, the bilingual Tuath, have a new single, ‘Cuz Why?!’ and we’re delighted to premiere it here. As opposed to the usual shoegaze & trip-hop-laced excursions the band are used to – watch the video for their last single, ‘Youth‘ – filtered through frontman Robert Mulhern’s psychedelic lens, this song adds post-punk to their considerable palette. Mulhern has drawn a consistent thematic throughline through Tuath, of the questioning of accepted ideals & organised ideology. They continue to effuse their worldview with a half-maniacal cackle, half-nihilistic-shrug, helped along by its kitchen sink absurdist imagery. He says of the…

  • Any Joy – Cycles

    September 13, 2017 - By 

    Following its digital release earlier in the year, Cork psych-tinted post-punk outfit Any Joy release their debut album, Cycles on vinyl. The five piece, formed at the start of this year by Oisin Dineen, self-released the album earlier in 2017 digitally, Cycles. With all the hallmarks of a great post-punk indie rock record – glistening guitars, anxiety-fuelled lyrics centred around the cyclical nature of thought – its psychedelic hue, peppered with documentary samples & unexpected instrumentation while maintaining a healthy minimalism that avoids any air of pomposity, à la Parquet Courts; you can add Any Joy to the list of essential post-punk & psychedelic bands from a city…

  • Premiere & Interview: Blue Americans – ‘Bull On Venice Beach/Holy Goo’

    September 1, 2017 - By 

    En­ough tears have been shed over the once-fertile, in-breeding Belfast music scene – or more specifically, a certain strain of D.I.Y. post-hardcore that was once ubiquitous in the wake of Brand New and Reuben’s premature breakups – led by young, hungry outfits like More Than Conquerors, who quite successfully married that sound with an astute ear for a hook, delivered by the gilded throat of Kris Platt. Everyone in that band went their separate ways almost exactly two years ago, following not much shy of a decade together. All things, however, must pass, and since then, the landscape has drastically…

  • Shrug Life – ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    August 29, 2017 - By 

    Dublin’s foremost purveyors of wit-pop and satirists of modern day Ireland, Shrug Life, release their long-awaited album, titled ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ – fitting, really, given that bass player Keith Broni is the world’s first emoji translator. The jangle-pop trio are notable for having some of the most pointed lyrics on the island, courtesy of frontman Danny Carroll – who penned the album’s most recent single, the Repeal-themed ‘Your Body’. This is the band’s first lengthy release since 2015 debut EP The Grand Stretch on Popical Island. The album was produced by ‘veteran wildcard’ Fiachra McCarthy (also known for Dott, Squarehead & So Cow), with its artwork coming…

  • Watch: Eraser TV – Golden Boy

    August 29, 2017 - By 

    The astutely-named debut EP, Buzzfeed Depression Quiz, from Limerick indie rockers Eraser TV now has an accompanying video for its nine minute centrepiece, ‘Golden Boy’. A composition reminiscent in scope and mood to David Pajo’s Papa M, or slowcore greats Codeine, ‘Golden Boy’ never drags as much as it could; Functioning as something as a Freebird as far as rock epics go, it bucks the trend by saying more in its sole lyric than all the confederate flagwavers the ’70s could muster. The video itself eschews a potentially overdriven narrative or the dreaded ‘live performance video’ in favour of grainy, intensely frisson-inducing archival footage of war, giving the song…

  • Ger Fox Sailing – Ger Fox Sailing

    August 21, 2017 - By 

    The self-titled, self-produced debut album from Wexford quartet Ger Fox Sailing is a richly-woven, nicely eclectic collection of songs from a band who have just set out their stall and then some. From the contemplative precision of ‘Nowhere Without You’ and the poppier tangents of ‘What It Is’ to blistering closer ‘Best Friend’ via a stream of scuzz-laden, occasionally prog-leaning rock, reverberations from the likes of Longpigs, Incubus, Queens of the Stone Age, Grandaddy and, in parts, Northern Irish alt-rock band Pocket Promise (though we suspect the latter is something of a total coincidence) coalesce with the band’s own brand of deft,…

  • Elder Druid – Carmina Satanae

    August 21, 2017 - By 

    Ballymena/Belfast occult-loving stoner-doom outfit Elder Druid have announced details of their debut album, Carmina Satanae – the Latin Term for Songs of Satan. The LP was recorded live in the studio by certified heft-bringer Niall Doran at Start Together Studios in Belfast over 3 days in August. As well as inevitable genre touchstones like Sleep & Electric Wizard, the iron lungs of frontman Gregg McDowell lends it a fury matched only by the likes of Down. Eight tracks strong, two of which are fresh recordings from their prior Magicka EP, they look set to make a significant dent on the UK & Irish doom scenes, having already toured…