• Stream: Naoise Roo – For You

    March 9, 2015 - By 

    Alternative singer-songwriter Naoise Roo unveiled yesterday – International Women’s Day – ‘For You’, the darkly atmospheric new single to be taken from her upcoming debut album, Lilith. Having debuted only last summer with powerful alt. rock free-download single, ‘Oh Son‘, Roo’s fire has lit up the local scene impressively quickly, with Lilith set for release on April 27 through Irish alternative & experimental label Little L Records. With only the layered-yet-stripped sound of ‘For You’ to go by, the album’s genre-spanning promises of ambient electronica, indie rock and burlesque could well show Lilith to be one of the great Irish breakthrough albums of 2015. Certainly this early on, her output is…

  • BeeMickSee – The Belfast Yank

    February 26, 2015 - By 

    Portland-born, Belfast-raised rapper BeeMickSee releases his long-awaited, aptly-titled debut album The Belfast Yank globally on March 16.  Some of the tracks have been made available through previous EPs & singles, available to check out on Bandcamp. With the question hanging over the album of: “What do you do when your parents move you from the hipster mecca that is Portland Oregon to the urban jungle that is post-ceasefire Belfast?”, the former punk-hop Bomb City 7 alumnus Brendan Seamus eschews the usual misogynist hip-hop patter – instead favouring lyrics chartering the experience of relocation in an unfamiliar, often uncivilised society, cross-Atlantic cultural parallels, strained relationships and bullying. Recorded in Start…

  • The Co-Present Late Sessions Launch & Weekly Show

    February 19, 2015 - By 

    Dwayne Woods, host of online alternative Irish radio show The Co-Present on Radiomade.ie – check their podcasts out here – has combined forces with show Niamh Farrell of Ham Sandwich to bring a monthly show at Dublin’s Workman’s Club, with the official launch taking place on Friday, February 27. Headlining the night are neo-psych quartet This Other Kingdom, who release their debut album Telescopic on April 11. Check their sonic concoction out on Bandcamp –  they’re sure to be one of the acts to keep an eye on throughout 2015, with new material being teased for their set. Following their set, singer & multi-instrumentalist electronica artist Patrick Kelleher (above) will be spinning…

  • New Ancestors – Annabelle EP

    February 16, 2015 - By 

    Newly-expanded quartet New Ancestors, having just relocated from Glasgow back to Belfast, have announced details of their first EP as a four piece, Annabelle. Formerly a duo – called the 1930s – the core of the band are singer-guitarist Jonny Solari and drummer & singer Andrew Cameron, have now added Adam Booth and Glenn Kennedy to their ranks. The expansion has signalled a change to a more pop-rock sound, moving away from their previous folk-pop roots. The EP is released on April 13. Check out the video for the title track & single:

  • TV Eye: The Booth At The End

    February 12, 2015 - By 

    Fan of Black Mirror? The Twilight Zone? In the very first of a new series, TV Eye, Stevie Lennox looks at one of Netflix’s more engrossing darkly propositions, The Booth At The End. I’m a junkie for a show that blurs the lines of morality and asks the big questions  – think The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, Utopia. If any of those names stand out to you, The Booth At The End is your new jam – for about five hours, at least. At this point, there are only two five-episode seasons available with promises of a more ambitious third…

  • Stream: Princess – Black Window

    February 10, 2015 - By 

    Following up on the sprawling ‘Molly’ – our Irish track of 2014 – one of our 15 picks for 2015, experimental indie rock act Princess – based around the creative pair of Aoife Frances & Liam Mesbur – have just unveiled their latest single, ‘Black Window’. Weighing in at little under three minutes , the song is significantly more concise than the duo previous work, recalling prime ’90s indie rock with hooks to match. It’s one of their shining moments to date, covering more ground in their perpetually evolving blend of shoegaze, krautrock & noise, as heard on the pair of singles…

  • Wes Anderson Night @ The Pavilion, Belfast

    January 5, 2015 - By 

    On Friday January 9, Belfast’s Pavilion Bar hosts a screening of The Royal Tenenbaums as part of a night celebrating the unique universe and music of director Wes Anderson, one of the most distinctive figures in cinema of the past two decades, who has brought us the likes of Rushmore, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Fantastic Mr Fox.  Anderson is as famous for his film soundtracks as he is for the films themselves, so after the screening, Joe Lindsay of the Super Fuzz Big Muff club night at McHugh’s will be playing music – we’re talking Latin-American Bowie covers, quirky French pop, the Stones, the…

  • No Spill Blood – Heavy Electricity

    December 12, 2014 - By 

    Dublin dystopia-soundtracking bass/synth/drums trio No Spill Blood have put forward ‘White Out’, the first track to be unveiled from their upcoming debut LP, the Brass Eye-referencing Heavy Electricity, which follows up on their excellent 2012 debut, the Sargent House-released Street Meat EP. The trio is comprised of Hands Up Who Wants To Die bassist Matt Hedigan, drummer Ror Conaty – who recently replaced Adebisi Shank’s Lar Kaye – and synthscaper Ruadhan O’Meara. Their forthcoming 9-track album – featuring vocals on one song from D.I.Y. punk icon Mike Watt -it sounds like more of what you’d come to expect, with the retro-futuristic synth lines that…

  • Stream: No Spill Blood – White Out

    December 12, 2014 - By 

    Dublin dystopia-soundtracking bass/synth/drums trio No Spill Blood have put forward ‘White Out’, the first track on their upcoming debut LP, the Brass Eye-referencing Heavy Electricity, which follows up on their excellent 2012 debut, the Sargent House-released Street Meat EP. Taken from their forthcoming 9-track album – featuring vocals on one song from D.I.Y. punk icon Mike Watt – the song is more of what you’d come to expect, with the retro-futuristic synth lines that characterise their sound, along with pulsating, doomy fuzz bass and pounding rhythmic repetition. The album is available to pre-order now on Bandcamp, and is released through Sargent House on January 27. Heavy Electricity by No Spill…

  • Sun Kil Moon @ The Button Factory

    December 11, 2014 - By 

    There’s a relaxed, seasonal warmth upon entering the Button Factory for tonight’s mostly seated, limited capacity show, which sees Mark Kozelek at possibly the most critically acclaimed stage of his career – almost every song performed tonight comes from the last two years of his career – due in no small part to this year’s Sun Kil Moon LP, the mortality-fixated Benji. With no support act, Kozelek ambles onstage accompanied simply by a keyboardist and electric guitarist, standing with a sole tea-towelled drumstick for his lone tom, holding a straight beat with the intent of a serial killer for the entirety…