• Watch: Effy – Move

    January 15, 2014 - By 

    Kildare-derived, Dublin-based electronic two-piece Kieran Craddock and Peter Fleming AKA Effy have unveiled their latest single, ‘Move’, a nigh on seven-minute unravelling electronic odyssey. Speaking to us about the track, the duo said, “The track is actually a couple months old at this stage and as with all of our tracks it came about through messing about and shit in the studio.” “Our Disco’s Dead release [Forth/The Look] should be out real soon and we’ll be announcing details of our next EP shortly after, the pair continued. On top of that we’re trying to gig as much as possible”. Watch the video for…

  • Watch: Phantogram – Nothing But Trouble

    January 14, 2014 - By 

    Taken from their forthcoming new album, Voices, New York electronic rock duo Josh Carter and Sarah Berthel AKA Phantogram have released their intoxicating new single, ‘Nothing But Trouble’. “Don’t listen to me, I’m nothing but trouble,” Berthel warns on the chorus, an ensnaring electro-pop refrain oddly reminiscent of Eels’ ‘Bus Stop Boxer’. Over the course of four minutes, the track’s fizzling, skittering, synth-driven spell imparts a exceptional nocturnal pulse that promises some great things for the pair’s upcoming second studio album. Voices  is released via Republic on February 18. Check out ‘Nothing But Trouble’ via YouTube below.

  • Watch: Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Visiting Myself in Hospital

    January 14, 2014 - By 

    “I’m a tightrope walker over miles of sea/This a frame of mind I’m in will end up killing me.” So goes one of the lines from ‘Visiting Myself in Hospital’ by Limerick experimental three-piece Micháel Keating, Brendan McInerney and Cathal Histon AKA Bleeding Heart Pigeons, a track about the hypothetical ponderings of one of the Columbine killers. Take a step back from the subject matter, the song’s somewhat unexpected no wave-esque outro and the song’s DIY video (below) and you’re left with a wonderfully simple, rather endearing slice of indie/synth-pop. Indeed, as is becoming their custom, Bleeding Heart Pigeons have combined the…

  • Watch: Slomatics – Troglorite

    January 14, 2014 - By 

    Belfast-based doom overlords Slomatics have long been one of our favourite riff-heavy Irish acts. Ten years and a couple of line-up changes into their evolution, the three-piece have just unveiled the video to their latest single, the decidedly crushing ‘Troglorite’ The four-and-a-half minute minute opening track to the band’s forthcoming fourth album, Estron, the creeping, drop-tuned offering evokes the likes of Sleep/early High and Fire and Conan (a band the guys released a split with back in 2011) in equal proportion. Set to be released next month, Estron was recorded and mixed at Belfast’s Start Together Studios and is a concept album…

  • Several Irish Acts Set For SXSW 2014

    January 10, 2014 - By 

    Several Irish acts have been confirmed to play this year’s South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The annual U.S. showcase – now in its 28th year – will feature performances from Unknwn (above), Wonder Villains, RAMS’ Pocket Radio, Foy Vance, and from the south, September Girls, Heathers, Hozier, DOTT, O Emperor, Wounds, The Strypes, The Young Folk and Nightbox. Inaugurated in 1987, South by Southwest 2014 will run from March 11-16 and feature thousands of acts from across the world.

  • Choice Music Prize 2014 Shortlist Revealed

    January 8, 2014 - By 

    Now in its ninth year, the shortlist for the Meteor Choice Music Prize has been announced. Including the long overdue comeback albums from genre-defining shoegaze My Bloody Valentine, the breakthrough second album from Belfast-based four-piece Girls Names and the Mercury Prize-nominated {Awayland} by Dublin’s Villagers, the winner of the ten-act shortlist will be announced at Dublin’s Vicar Street on Thursday, February 27. Check out the full nominations below: And So I Watch You From Afar – All Hail Bright Futures (Sargent House) Bell X1 – Chop Chop (Belly Up Records) Girls Names – The New Life (Tough Love) Kodaline – In…

  • Good Vibrations up for BAFTA Award

    January 8, 2014 - By 

    Having been chosen by movie critic Mark Kermode as his #1 film of 2013, Good Vibrations has been nominated for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category at this year’s BAFTA Awards. The film – chronicling the rise of Terri Hooley’s legendary Belfast record shop and his discovery of Derry punk upstarts the Undertones at the height of the Troubles – was released at the start of last year to a wave of critical and commercial attention. The nomination is in recognition of Colin Carberry and Glenn Paterson’s stellar screenplay for the film. This ceremony will take place on…

  • Watch: Meltybrains? – Green, Yellow & Purple

    January 7, 2014 - By 

    Dublin weirdo/electro-pop five-piece Meltybrains? have long been a band that have piqued our interest. Becoming less a mere curiousity, that interest has blossomed into full-blown excitement with the release of the band’s latest single, the ten-minute ‘Green, Yellow &Purple’. Created by Louise Gaffney (of Come On Live Long, no less), the video for the single is a decidedly tripped-out accompaniment that nicely weaves around the track – a skittered, blissed-out mini-odyssey that forges the eccentric with the stellar in thoroughly confident fashion, unravelling to become something of a prog/electro masterstroke. Immerse yourself in the video below.

  • Stream: Francis Lung – A Selfish Man

    January 7, 2014 - By 

    Manchester-based musician and ex WU LYF bassist Tom McClung – not satisfied with having already formed the guitar-pop band Los Porcos since his former band’s split – now steps out under the Francis Lung moniker to deliver catchy, sun-kissed indie-rock. ‘A Selfish Man’ runs for six and a half minutes, yet burns bright for its entirety; no doubt something to do with the uncomfortable truths hidden within: “Abandoning was not the plan/ but I don’t wanna know you/ or wanna understand/ I can let you go/ cause I’m a selfish man“. There are too no doubt several not-so-subtle swipes in…

  • Watch: Little Bear – Night Dries Like Ink

    January 5, 2014 - By 

    Having had an extraordinary 2013, Derry band Little Bear have unveiled the video to their single, ‘Night Dries Like Ink’. Shot and edited by Samuel Steele of Missing Piece Film, the video – shot at the Derry’s Playhouse – is a suitably entrancing accompaniment to the song, the fast-rising Northern Irish band’s debut single on Smalltown America. Buy the ‘Night Dries Like Ink’ double A-Side single as a deluxe transparent green 12″ vinyl here. Watch the video for the song below.