• Album Stream: Bleeding Heart Pigeons – Stir

    May 22, 2020 - By 

    While it’s early days yet, Limerick’s Bleeding Heart Pigeons have just made their claim to one of the Irish albums of the year. Arriving four years on from their debut album Is, Stir was written and recorded in a small converted farm-shed in rural West Limerick and finds the threesome in alchemical form. From opener, the sorcerous ‘Bubble Boy’ to closer ‘Good Dogs Never Die’ – a track that doubles up as one of many peaks on display here – it emphatically consolidates the Michael Keating-fronted band’s forward-pushing alt/indie craft down to twelve tracks. Stir by Bleeding Heart Pigeons

  • Album Stream: Joel Harkin – Never Happy

    May 19, 2020 - By 

    Over the last few months, Donegal singer-songwriter Joel Harkin has steadily cast a spell upon us and many others via first-rate singles ‘Vada’, ‘No Recycling’ and ‘Thought I’d Go Home’. Collectively, they are but three peaks from Harkin’s exquisite debut album, Never Happy, which is released today. Produced by George Sloan at Half Bap Studios, it’s a masterfully focused, filler-free release from the Belfast-based artist, distilling his brand of alternative folk down to ten tracks, each as inviting and incisive as the next. Delve in below. Never Happy by Joel Harkin

  • Album Premiere: Hey Jigsaw – Who’s Your Dark Master?

    May 22, 2020 - By 

    Following on from the video premiere last week, Al Finnerty of Guilty Optics – under the guise of Hey Jigsaw – releases his debut album today on Waffler Records. A departure from the aggressive ouput of his previous groups, Finnerty has called in the corners to feature guest vocals from Ciaran Smith of Crayonsmith / Nome King, Conor Deasy of Tomorrow, Niamh Buckley and trumpets from Dave Prendergast of Glimmermen to round out this nostalgia-tinged atmospheric record, full of melodic nods to the likes of Pinback, The Sea & Cake and June of 44. Of the album title, Hey Jigsaw says: ‘Who’s your dark master?’…

  • Watch: Fears – two_

    May 19, 2020 - By 

    Content note: self-harm Fears, AKA Constance Keane, has consistently used her voice to further the conversation on the importance of the arts in mental health, so we could think of no more apt artist to open up the Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival. Taking place remotely for the first time, running through until May 24th, the festival could hardly happen at a more pertinent time, with online-only commissioned music, art, film premieres, talks & workshops from esteemed doctors and comedians, with many innovative ways to navigate ‘the great unprecedented’. Commissioned by the festival, the self-produced single and its visual companion depict the non-linear recovery from trauma, using repurposed footage shot by Constance and her family during the last…

  • Premiere: Tuath – I Am But a Poor Man (But I Have Got Cans)

    May 18, 2020 - By 

    In times of duress, it helps to have a mantra to keep things firmly within the realms of perspective. In the case of the North West’s foremost psych-inflected experimental rock band Tuath, “I am a poor man but I have cans” is an incantation so worthy it doubles up as the title of the Robert Mulhern-fronted band’s new single. Taken from their forthcoming mini-album, the singularly-titled The Fuckening, it’s another sorcerous dose of spaced-out exploration from the Donegal band. Featuring Sega Megadrive MIDI exploits and more, it makes for a suitably shapeshifting effort across three minutes. Have a first look at Kieran Devlin’s video…

  • Monday Mixtape: CMAT

    May 18, 2020 - By 

    From Bombay Bicycle Club and Dolly Parton to Glen Campbell and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Meath pop sensation Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson aka CMAT waxes lyrical about some of her all-time favourite songs. __ Bombay Bicycle Club – Lights Out, Words Gone I could write a book about any song on this album. My first foray into the music industry was being a highly successful Bombay Bicycle Club fangirl, and it has served me quite well in life. I ran a blog about the guitarist, Jamie, where me and my friends wrote fanfiction and photoshopped his head onto members of…

  • Album Premiere: Locked – Locked #1

    May 18, 2020 - By 

    Locked #1 is a full-length compilation album from Patrick Kelleher and his Cold Dead Hands, Catscars and Everything Shook which has now been made publicly available for the first time. It was originally issued in a strictly limited edition for audience members at their triple bill gig in the BelloBar on 1 July 2017. The title was in reference to the venue’s canal side location in Portobello, Dublin. The decision to make this limited release widely available has been in part due to the Coronavirus causing venue closures, derailing the collectives original intention to perform a sporadic series of concerts at different…

  • EP Premiere: Licehead – Friends

    May 19, 2020 - By 

    Paul O’Connor – of That Snaake notoriety – has shared with us his latest release under the Licehead banner, which follows up on last year’s Music For Normal People album, and precedes upcoming summer LP Perfect Death Forever, which is set in a modern Ireland and based around a reincarnated lung’s attempts to kill its host. An aural equivalent to peeling-paint walls-closing-in claustrophobic hysteria, Friends at its extremes recalls the torpid squalor of Fat White Family or The Fall in dada-techno mode. Partly written over the last two months, the EP sees O’Connor turns the pen upon himself and loved ones, and societally-ingrained truths; title track ‘fRENDS’ is itself a reworking of ‘I’ll Be There For You’,…

  • Video Premiere: Joshua Burnside – Whiskey Whiskey

    May 12, 2020 - By 

    The continued evolution of Joshua Burnside is nothing short of a joy to behold. Over the last few years, the Northern Irish artist has expanded upon his singular folk sound with a healthy dose of forward-pushing sonic exploration. New single ‘Whiskey Whiskey’ retains much of what is familiar about Burnside’s sound, all while pushing into new territory. A masterfully stripped-back effort, the song – and accompanying video – stares down the grip of all-consuming fears via disarmingly confessional songwriting. “I wrote the lyrics for Whiskey, Whiskey whilst on a flight to London,” Burnside said. “I hate flying and l would…

  • Video Premiere: Hey Jigsaw – Where Do You Wanna Go

    May 14, 2020 - By 

    Hey Jigsaw is the new project from Dublin musician Alan Finnerty – also of punk heroes Guilty Optics – and today, we’re delighted to premiere their first single, taken from their forthcoming debut album Who’s Your Dark Master? Featuring Dave Prendergast on trumpet and Niamh Buckley on backing vocals, ‘Where Do You Wanna Go’ recalls the discordant melodicism of Les Savy Fav or Q And Not U. It’s difficult to avoid every cliche of this trying time, so if you’ll indulge us, the video and song’s unified sense of bittersweet widescreen escapism is exactly what we could be doing with. Watch it below: