• Watch: The Late David Turpin – Hotel

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    Dublin-based singer-songwriter The Late David Turpin has unveiled the rather cryptic and impenetrable video for his new single, ‘Hotel’. Made in collaboration with photographer/editor Killian Broderick and starring siblings Julie Shanley and Jack Shanley (as well as Turpin and his own brother),  the video was shot on location in the Wicklow mountains and in the atmospheric Bray Head Hotel, which wasrecently used as a location for Neil Jordan’s Byzantium. Partially inspired by esoteric fantasies of the mid-1970s including John Boorman’s Zardoz (1974) and Louis Malle’s Black Moon (1975), the video features multiple fragmented strands suggesting human sacrifice and transformation.  Pivoting around a movement piece choreographed by Jack Shanley, the video is…

  • Watch: Rhinos – Rhino

    May 23, 2014 - By 

    Formed in Belfast in September last year, garage rock duo Paul Currie and Laura Totten AKA Rhinos have really made a name for themselves following a handful of live shows these last couple of months. Counting the likes of Minor Threat, The Melvins and Andy Kaufman as influences, the pair have both played in a variety of local bands down the years, including T.A.R.T., Sinch, Hammer Bat, Buzzkill and others. Stripped back and launching straight for the jugular, Rhinos’ jagged garage-rock blitzkrieg is impressively captured on their debut single, ‘Rhino’. A call-and-response call to arms, the track was recorded by Clark Philips at the Joe…

  • Watch: A Plastic Rose – Autumn Eases You Into The Dark

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    The follow-up to ‘Someone’s Daughter’, Nottingham-based alt-rock quartet A Plastic Rosehave revealed the video to their new single, ‘Autumn Eases You Into The Dark’. Directed by David Louis Lankester, the video was shot at the Irish band’s practice space at J.T. Soar, Nottingham. The single itself – recorded with Chris Coulter (who plays guitar in Jamie Lenman’s band and works with Arcane Roots) at Stakeout Studios in London – will be released via DiDimau and Third Bar on Friday, June 30. It will also feature on the band’s forthcoming new album, Flickering Light of an Inner War. A Plastic Rose will…

  • Watch: Tied To Machines – Tampa Bay Mutiny

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    In what might well prove to be their curtain call, Belfast-based hardcore punk band Tied To Machines have unleashed the bloodthirsty ‘Tampa Bay Mutiny’. Accompanying by a wonderfully hypnotic video by Andrew Wilson, featuring spliced archive footage, the two-minute track bursts rabid from the traps, culminating in a skull-crushing second half that instantly necessitates a second or third listen. Recorded by Rocky O’Reilly at Belfast’s Start Together Studios, the track can be streamed/purchased here. Watch the video for ‘Tampa Bay Mutiny’ below.  

  • Headliners announced for Sunflowerfest 2014

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    Kicking off in exactly three months time, the two headliners for this year’s Sunflowerfest have been announced at Belfast’s Sunflower Bar. Taking place across the weekend of August 22-25, English dance act The Orb and Co. Down rock quartet The Answer (pictured) were revealed as this year’s headliners, set to perform on the Friday and Saturday night respectively. With the rest of the line-up yet to be announced, tickets for the festival are currently available to buy via the official Sunflowerfest website.

  • Watch: Elastic Sleep – Leave You

    May 22, 2014 - By 

    Taken from their debut EP, Cork dream pop band Elastic Sleep have unveiled the decidedly phantasmal video for its eponymous single, ‘Leave You’. Directed by Emmet O’ Brien for Thinking Cog productions in conjunction with Limbo, the murky, psychedelic video really captures the track’s stalking, woozy tangents. Comprised of hazy projections and leering silhouettes, it features Muireann Levis and co. performing the track as if on some subconscious stage; a recess of the band’s collective mind. Leave You was released FIFA Records and Big Tea Records on 10″ white vinyl with a digital download code. Purchase it here and stream three tracks from the five-track release: Elastic Sleep have…

  • Tanglewood 2014 Line-up Announced

    May 19, 2014 - By 

    Garage-blues due The Bonnevilles, alt-rock trio Abandcalledboyand folk duo New Ancestors are amongst the acts announced to play this year’s Tanglewood Festival. Returning to Newry’s Narrow Water Castle on for the fourth running on July 4 and 5, the festival will also feature performances from the likes of Ports (Little Bear), Mere Moths, Gascan Ruckus, Podracer and a band called – wait for it – The Scrotes. A “varied” assemblage of acts on offer it is. Check out the line-up poster below and hit up the Tanglewood website soon to buy tickets.  

  • Stream: Master & Dog – Follow You

    May 19, 2014 - By 

    Having released its lead single, ‘Candlelight’, back in February, Belfast-based alt-folk four-piece Master & Dog are streaming a second track from their sublime new EP, Things You Should Know. Clocking in at just over five minutes, we had this to say about the song, titled ‘Follow You’, in our review here: “With its opening, Mogwai-like triptych of solitary, echoing piano chords – evoking the ineffable melancholia of ‘Bye’ by Elliott Smith and ‘Sing’ by Blur – ‘Follow Me’ boasts, upon first listen, the alchemical structure of a straightforward dancefloor single. There’s the Dm-C-F descending chord progression, the line “I think I’m in love for the first time” and the unravelling, stripped-back…

  • Watch: The Twenty – Have You Seen Her

    May 19, 2014 - By 

    The follow-up to their cover of ‘You Can’t Be Lonely Forever’ by Derry punk veterans Bam Bam and The Calling, Belfast-based garage-punk band The Twenty have unveiled the video to their new single, ‘Have You Seen Her’. Filmed and directed by Colm Laverty and Nikki McRae on location at Belfast venue the Limelight, the video features the Colm Warren-fronted band playing in front of fans whilst a suitably tied-in storyline unravels around them. The Twenty play Belfast’s Voodoo Bar on Friday, June 27. You can stream and download both ‘Have You Seen Her’ and ‘You Can’t Be Lonely Forever’ via The Twenty’s…

  • EP Stream: Hannah McPhillimy – Freedom Songs

    May 19, 2014 - By 

    Six months on from her Freedom Songs event in November last year, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Hannah McPhillimy has released a three-track EP of the same name. Fully a cappella, the three tracks – including a cover of spiritual ‘Wade In The Water’ – brilliantly illustrate McPhillimy’s vocal range and tonal ingenuinity. The EP, which you can stream/purchase via Bandcamp below, will see all proceeds going to anti-slavery charity No More Traffik. Read James Magill’s review of McPhillimy’s Freedom Songs at Crumlin Gaol here. Freedom Songs by Hannah McPhillimy