• Watch: Robocobra Quartet – Witch Hunt (Live)

    November 30, 2015 - By 

    From the release of their BOMBEP EP back in April, unveiling double-single Iwazaru/Mizaru in October and several memorable shows in Belfast and further afield, it’s safe to say 2015 has been something of a breakthrough year for Robocobra Quartet. A quick scan through our copious posts on the Chris Ryan-fronted band – before and after featuring them as one of our 15 For ’15 – reveals that we’ve called them: chamber punk, jazz-inflected rap-punk, rapjazz-punk, jazz-rap-punk, jazz-punk and (our current personal favourite) “four-piece”. At this juncture, then, it’s say to safe we’ve reached a descriptor Endgame when it comes to even flirting with the idea of summing up…

  • Premiere: Chris Hanna – B.K.I.T.B

    November 27, 2015 - By 

    Set to feature on Belfast electronic imprint Extended Play’s EP50: STATEMENT OF INTENT – out Monday, November 30 – we’re pleased to premiere ‘B.K.I.T.B’ by Belfast producer Chris Hanna. Standing for ‘Broken Knuckles In The Bunatee’, Hanna said of the track: “‘Broken Knuckles In The Bunatee’ is my nod to the room in the Queens University Student’s Union. It regularly hosts Belfast’s rowdiest nights. When things kick off in the place the low ceiling always takes the brunt of it and I wanted to make something as a tribute to that exact moment. They’ve happened so frequently now they’ve started repairing…

  • Watch: Myles Manley – Slip Into The Sea

    November 30, 2015 - By 

    A nonpareil artist very much operating on his own creative axis, Myles Manley positively inveigled us back in 2012 with his self-titled debut EP. In the three years since, he has maintained that power to intrigue and ensnare with a trickle of releases including mini-album More Songs, released back in February. The latest single to be released from that, the somnambulant ‘Slip Into The Sea’ is both the closer and our personal favourite track from that release, conjuring a submersing netherworld that Manley can lay claim to as czar. Directed, film and edited by Michael Higgins, watch the video for Slip into the Sea and check out upcoming Myles Manley tour dates supporting…

  • Watch: Wizards Of Firetop Mountain – Ain’t Gonna Lose

    November 26, 2015 - By 

    Some bands – and some considerably better than others of their ilk – are well and truly compelled by the riff. Having recently melted the face of your writer supporting Japanese psych gurus Acid Mother’s Temple at Belfast’s Voodoo recently, Dublin rockers Wizards of Firetop Mountain are one such act. Set to launch their self-titled debut album at Dublin’s Bello Bar tomorrow (Friday, November 27) night, the band are comprised of members of some of the city’s finest pioneering underground bands including Zom, No Spill Blood, Dread Soverign and others. At the epicentre of seismic, hat-tipping craft is a combined worship of the…

  • Album stream: Runaway[GO] – Alive

    November 26, 2015 - By 

    Four years and a string of short releases in, Belfast-based duo Dave Jackson and Fiona O’Kane AKA Runaway[GO] have cultivated a carefully considered, wonderfully delivered pop sound that has grown so innately distinctive that the release of their debut album, Alive, feels every week worth the wait. As much about poise and restraint as it is unabashed, nigh on ridiculously infectious melodic bombast, it’s a consistent and solid release (in both senses of the word) for the hotly-tipped twosome. Stream the album via Soundcloud now below.

  • Watch: Good Friend – The Return of Fionn & The Fianna

    November 25, 2015 - By 

    Currently based in Newcastle, North Coast alt-punk three-piece Good Friend have grown in leaps and bounds over the last couple of years. Having spent 2015 recording their forthcoming debut album, Ride The Storm, the Adam Carroll-fronted band have just re-emerged with ‘The Return of Fionn & The Fianna’, an equally urgent and anthemic new track that features on compilation Paper + Plastick; Welcome to the UK. Re-adapting stories from Irish Mythology to a contemporary context, it’s a strong and purposeful cut hinting at promising things for Ride The Storm. Check out the video for the track below.

  • Watch: Sea Pinks – Depth of Field

    November 24, 2015 - By 

    First shared last month – just over a year on from the release of the stellar Dreaming Tracks – we reckoned ‘Depth of Field’ by Belfast three-piece Sea Pinks was “yet another masterfully sanguine slice of melancholia from the Neil Brogan-fronted band, relating ambivalence and doubt in ways they mastered many moons ago.” Now the track – one of our favourite Sea Pinks’ tracks to date – has a video, which you can check out below. Sea Pinks’ new album, Soft Days, will be released via CF Records on January 8.

  • Stream: MMOTHS – Deu

    November 24, 2015 - By 

    Having long been one of the country’s most curious producers – an artist that has always felt right on the cusp of delivering something that little bit special – Jack Colleran AKA MMOTHS first grabbed our attention back in 2013 with his placating Diaries EP, a release full of restraint and cunning ambient power. Two years and a handful of impressive outings later, the Kildare artist has us smitten all over again with ‘Deu’, a warm, bewitching slice of electronica, taken from his forthcoming LP, Luneworks. Most definitely one for fans of Ulrich Schnauss, Baths and Boards of Canada, stream the track via…

  • Premiere: VerseChorusVerse & David Lyttle – Have Some Soul

    November 24, 2015 - By 

    Sticking to your guns and carving out your own path has many payoffs, least of all when it’s rewarded with some much-warranted recognition. Released via Lyte Records on Friday, Say & Do by North Coast singer-songwriter/ex-And So I Watch You From Afar guitarist Tony Wright AKA VerseChorusVerse and jazz maestro/drummer extraordinaire David Lyttle is a wonderfully instinctive and stripped-back collaboration that has seen the pair climb the charts this week, namely currently at 24 in the UK singer-songwriter charts, 28 in the UK new releases and no. 19 in the Irish charts. In an age when of varyingly soul-destroying, blitzkrieg-like PR campaigns, the duo’s…

  • Stream: Badlands – Caramisou

    November 24, 2015 - By 

    An artist who considers Ireland and Italy as two other home countries, Swedish producer Catharina Jaunviksna AKA Badlands‘ dusky and interstellar craft is very nicely pronounced on new single, ‘Caramisou’, the lead cut off her forthcoming debut album, which is set for release in Spring of 2016. Set to support Somadrone at his Oracle album launch gig at Dublin’s Unitarian Church on November 28 alongside Sorcha McGrath (Wounded Healer/Ships) and Danny Snow of Villagers, stream Jaunviksna’s latest effort below.