• Premiere: Slouch – whiteboyfilingcabinetfaxmachinestapler

    Following up on their Feminine Elbows EP from last year, the pop culture-savvy scuzzy alt. rock trio Slouch channel some Office Space-era jobsworth apathy on their latest release, the two-track whiteboyfilingcabinetfaxmachinestapler. The first of five singles to be released over the coming months by the industrious triad of South Dublin fellas, they know too well the meaning of the suburban minutia and drudgery rhymed off on its constituent parts, whiteboyfilingcabinetfaxmachinestapler & whiteboycoffeemachinebaker. Building on their traditionally QOTSA & Pixies-esque desert & alt-rock leanings, the band have upped their dosage of indie & garage rock energy – à la self-titled-era Blur & Ty Segall – and laced it with even…

  • The Sad & Beautiful World of Sparklehorse at The MAC

    On April 8 we will co-host a special, two-part event The MAC as part of Belfast Film Festival celebrating the life and music of the sadly-missed Mark Linkous, aka Sparklehorse. Following a screening of Alex Crowton and Bobby Dass’ new documentary ‘The Sad & Beautiful World of Sparklehorse’, the evening will also feature a Q+A with the filmmakers, as well as a live, one-hour performance, ‘A Night of Sparklehorse’ with Belfast-based singer-songwriters Tom McShane, The Mad Dalton, Heliopause, Pixie Saytar and more. Tickets are available from The MAC, priced at £10.50 & £12.50. Things kick off at 8pm.

  • Pre-Tour Preamble: Vasa & Body Hound

    Given our island’s reputation, in what now seems to be acknowledged as ‘the days of yore’, for independently successful rock bands of math and post-prefixed inclinations, it makes sense that mainland acts would flex their considerable muscles on our shores. Our so-called ‘island tax’ often extends to a limitation on shows from any less than stadium-ready musical artists and their ilk, but there’s a growing number of thoughtful and decent promoters out there working in synchronicity – many of whom we hope to feature in coming months – with the likes of Belfast’s Solid Choice Industries, Galway’s FEAST, Dublin’s Venture Presents joining forces, uniting the corners of…

  • Joshua Burnside – Ephrata

    Experimental singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside has announced the release of his debut album after a few years of silence. Ephrata is due to come out on May 5 through Quiet Arch Records – home also of Ciaran Lavery, Ryan Vail & Tucan – and was written allegedly during a creative spurt in Colombia. His only prior EP, If You’re Goin’ That Way was released in 2013. Despite Burnside playing most instruments on the album, it features a variety of recognisable local collaborators and producers throughout. Stream first single, ‘Tunnels Pt. 2’: Joshua Burnside launches Ephrata at the Duke of York on Sunday, April 30, with support from Alana…

  • Droids – Vessels EP

    After a break of several years, Derry riffers Droids release their new EP, Vessels, on March 27. Recorded at Smalltown America Studios over the last few years, it’s a long time coming after their excellent, raw eponymous debut EP in 2012. Stream the first track to be unveiled from the EP, ‘Burn Down’: Vessels by Droids

  • Wild Rocket – Dissociation Mechanics

    Eclectic Dublin psychedelic groove-laden space rock outfit Wild Rocket have announced their second album is called Dissociation Mechanics. The five-track album will be released through Irish DIY record label & distro Art For Blind. In the meantime, check out their 2014 debut album, Geomagnetic Hallucinations: Geomagnetic Hallucinations by WILD ROCKET

  • Group Zero – Structures and Light

    With his primary project currently working on album number 4, Girls Names frontman Cathal Cully is to release his debut solo effort, Structures and Light under his Group Zero pseudonym. Released on February 17 on Touch Sensitive Records, like his bandmate Philip Quinn’s Gross Net electronic side-project, it projects the flip-side of their post-punk day-job, instead channelling the shadowy intensity along the lines of Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire, without ever approaching an over-reliance on nostalgia or pastiche. As Touch Sensitive & Cully himself say: The genesis of this newly discovered musical freedom coincided with a viewing of ‘Pyramid of Light’ by Heinz Mack from the post-war Dusseldorf based…

  • Fecking Bahamas – V. Ireland

    To say Ireland has an unusually rich track record in the realms of math-rock, post-rock and instrumental music would be something of an understatement. This is something Melbourne music website Fecking Bahamas (assumingly named after the latter-day Don Caballero song ‘Palms Trees In the Fecking Bahamas’) have copped onto, manifesting in V. Ireland, a new, 21 track compilation featuring tracks from the likes of And So I Watch You From Afar, The Redneck Manifesto and Abebisi Shank to lesser-known but no less sorcerous sonic conquistadors in We Are Knives, Val Normal and Psychojet. Their fifth-region specific compilation and their first release…

  • Stream: New Pagans – Worker’s Song/Ode To None

    One of our featured acts in 17 For ’17, New Pagans, have just released two new tracks following their debut tunes in September of last year. The band is one of NI music royalty, featuring Girls Names & Cruising‘s Claire Miskimmin, Jetplane Landing, Goons & Fighting With Wire‘s Cahir O’Doherty – whose trademark memorable alt. rock riffing is on display – as well as vocalist Lyndsey McDougall and Conor McAuley on drums. The band have yet to perform live, but by their sound and aesthetic so far – with each song featuring unique artwork from the band – New Pagans forms the bridge teased…

  • Album Premiere: Nomadic Rituals – Marking The Day

    We’re over the moon – and indeed, the universe and its eventual demise – to premiere the gargantuan second album from one of the heaviest bands on this rock, Belfast-based heavy primal doom trio Nomadic Rituals. In the band’s own words: “‘Marking the Day’ was created as a concept album envisioning the birth and death of the cosmos, and ultimately focusing upon our subsequent place within it. From the formation of physical matter and structure of the universe; to the division of the first single cells and the evolution of the dominant species; to the final and inevitable heat death of the entire…