Belfast artist Stephen Jones AKA Glass Wings has unveiled the video for his new single, ‘Believe’. The latest track to be taken from his forthcoming debut album, Everything and Nothing, it’s a slick and urgent blast of the fast-rising songwriter’s alt-pop craft. Hosted by Bird & Bramble, Glass Wings’ debut is officially launched at Belfast’s Black Box on October 19. You can buy and stream the single here. Have a first look at the visuals below.
Belfast-based alt-folk singer-songwriter Peter Sumadh AKA The Mad Dalton has unveiled the video for his new single, ‘Spirit of Rocky’. Taken from Dalton’s full-length debut album, Open Season, the single – one of Sumadh’s strongest to date – now comes accompanied with Elspeth Vischer-directed video, with camera work by Ayrton McGurgan. Trigger warning: may contain an oversized, sax-wielding bunny. The Mad Dalton play Belfast’s 39 Gordon Street on Thursday, October 11th.
When Belfast musician and producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party unveiled his self-titled debut album last July, we quickly learnt that we were dealing with something pretty special. Having previously established himself as a formidable one-fourth of erstwhile Belfast alt-rock heroes LaFaro, and later with GOONS, it made for a feature-length curveball from a musician who has seemingly, and rather quietly, mastered a whole different palette of sound. The dancefloor nocturnalism of ‘Grube’ hit home hard. The widescreen ambience of ‘Thirty Five’ was a spectral tidal of ambience on mute. ‘Null Set’, meanwhile, proved an unravelling eight-minute centrepiece, and a track that continues to…
It’s difficult to listen to a Wild Nothing record and not think of Gemini, Jack Tatum’s 2010 debut. Not simply for nostalgia-induced reasoning, though the record’s dreamy ambience may lead one in that direction. Rather, Tatum himself won’t let us forget Gemini. While there’s nothing wrong with self reference and a narrative of progression throughout an artist’s lifetime, Indigo and the previous two Wild Nothing releases – Nocturne and Life of Pause – are overshadowed by that charming debut and Tatum does himself no favours in trying, quite half heartedly, to move on. When Gemini was released to the world,…
Tucked away in a side-street of bustling Belfast City is Accidental Theatre, a relatively-fangled DIY space that plays hosts to a cavalcade of events, both illustrious and wonderfully unassuming. Sitting somewhere in between the two is 20:20, a monthly charity songwriter night that takes over the venue’s upstairs – and singularly cosy – book bar. Giving rise to a whole new kind of “intimate” gig experience, the night takes place on the second Wednesday of every month and – full testament to its stripped-back, yet carefully-curated M.O. – delivers something special, time and time again. Ahead of its next outing on October 10th…
Taking control over identity and self expression is a trait we saw so vividly when Héloïse Letissier initially broke onto the scene in 2016 as Christine and the Queens. Her androgynous fashion, tell-all lyrics and gusto along with her seamless flitting between singing in French and English made her the divergent pop star of the year. Where she boldly claimed ‘I’m a man now’ on Chaleur Humaine’s ‘iT’, the French performer continues to tackle gender binaries on her second album by taking on the identity of ‘Chris’. It’s an obvious forward step away from her debut with more funk and…
Recorded with The Answer guitarist Paul Mahon, ‘War Cry’ is a statement of intent from Belfast trio Louis Nelson, Jordan Evans and Stuart Robinson AKA Gnarkats. Having already revealed their knack for blending heavy rock riffs with indie-pop melodies via previous effort including ‘Something to Say’ and ‘Enigma’, their new single shows a band whose huge choruses and fuzzed-out tangents are quickly setting them apart. Check out the band’s DIY video for the single below.
The closing track from one of the EPs of the year, Superior Fiction, ‘Lunar Drift’ by Galway’s Eoin Dolan is a slow-burning masterclass in the realms of wistful alt-pop. Released today, the single – which carries one of the finest refrains we’ve heard from an Irish artist in quite some time – comes accompanied with visuals by Dolan’s friend and collaborator David Boland AKA New Pope (who also created the video for the release’s title track).
Launched at Voodoo in Belfast tonight, Fragile is a statement of intent from Belfast quartet Fox Colony. From the fuzzed-out tangents of opener ‘Supermarkets’ to the synth-driven ‘Don’t Keep Me Here’, the EP is every bit as much about hooks as it is heart. In fact, equal parts impassioned and vulnerable, Fragile finds Darren Hill, Aaron Crowther, Aidan Lavery and Daniel Hoadley-Simpson strike an all-too rare happy medium between slick and lo-fi – something FM-friendly ode to bygone times, ‘Fractured’, and the EP’s title track confirm. Recorded and mixed by Rocky O’Reilly at Belfast’s Start Together Studio, and released via…
Ahead of its release in October Belfast-based singer-songwriter Stephen Jones AKA Glass Wings reveals the artists and tracks that made an imprint on his forthcoming debut album, Everything and Nothing. I’m under no obligation to be cool in these choices right? Sit back and relax as I take you on a tour of some of the greatest melodicists who inspired me in the making of this album. Hiatus Kaiyote – By Fire I’m always a little suspect of people who say they have a favourite band. But if pressed, Hiatus Kaiyote might have it for me. I’ve been lucky enough…