• Album Stream: Department of Forever – Flickering Light

    May 1, 2020 - By 

    Last May, we premiered the rapt and immersive ‘A Simulation of Here’ by Irish sound designer and musician Steve Fanagan aka Department of Forever. The closing track from his sublime album, Unseen Pictures, it hit home and then some. One year on, Fanagan’s sublime soundscapes can be heard in Normal People, the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel of the same name. New release Flickering Light contains four of those tracks and a couple more. “The original recordings for this release were improvised on a piano one night in late 2018, when I was living in a house share in London, before…

  • Stream: Skelocrats – Princeps

    May 1, 2020 - By 

    One of the gleaming jewels in the crown of Dublin collective Popical Island, Skelocrats dropped off the radar following the release of their second album, the still-excellent Bella Bella, back in 2015. One-off  single ‘You’ll Never Make Me Talk’ aside, their absence has been felt by many of us naturally predisposed to collaboratively-minded, fuzzed-out garage pop. Which is why we’re beside ourselves to share ‘Princeps’, the new single from Skelocrats. Brilliant and brisk at 2 minutes in length, it’s a song about strained devotion to the leader, and the first taste of the band’s forthcoming third album. Some things have changed: Paddy “supported…

  • Album Stream: Arvo Party – Devotions

    May 1, 2020 - By 

    If you were to look us dead in the eye and say “Arvo Party doesn’t sleep” we would genuinely believe you. The musical nom de plume of Belfast-based musician and producer Herb Magee, Arvo Party has been responsible for some of the most eclectic and forward-moving electronic sounds in Ireland over the last four years. His solo journey to date has almost been radically restless, propelled by a sense of determination that is unmistakable once you heed it. With his next album proper set to land in June, new release Devotions is an inspired feature-length diversion in its own right. Balmy…

  • Our Krypton Son To Release Deluxe Album Raising Funds for NHS, Unveils ‘Sunlight in the Ashes’ Remix

    May 1, 2020 - By 

    We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy aka Our Krypton Son is one of the finest writer of heart-stung tales this island has ever seen. While his 2017, Northern Ireland Music Prize-nominated second album, Fleas & Diamonds, still proves Technicolour testament to this fact, McConaghy’s 2014 self-titled debut album set the scene in exceptional fashion. Across 11 songs, he swiftly established himself as an artist with an uncanny knack for mining elemental human truths as perfectly formed dream-pop gems. On Wednesday, May 6th, McConaghy is releasing a deluxe reissue of Our Krypton Son, with all proceeds going…

  • Stream: Joel Harkin – Vada

    May 1, 2020 - By 

    In just under three weeks, Belfast-based songwriter Joel Harkin releases his debut album, Never Happy. A ten-track distillation of the Donegal artist’s singular alt-folk vision, it filters the influence of artists as disparate as Conor Oberst, Modest Mouse, Bjork and Gregory & The Hawk to deliver a compelling statement of intent. The follow-up to March’s ‘No Recycling‘, new single ‘Vada’ is an outright highlight from the album.  “The song creates a world in which my mates from Letterkenny and the main character of my favourite film, the 1991 classic ‘My Girl’, exist in the same universe,” Harkin says. “It’s about how they…

  • Premiere: Deathbed Convert – Inner Mountain

    April 30, 2020 - By 

    Two years on from releasing the stellar Sentience and Sapience under his Ai Messiah alias, Belfast producer and musician Connor Dougan is back as Deathbed Convert. Set for release via NI’s finest imprint Touch Sensitive tomorrow (Friday, May 1) Dougan’s debut in his new guise is a feature-length exploration of bygone times, conjuring the melancholic beauty of The Durutti Column, Gigi Masin’s deep, ambient ocean, and Iasos’ endless expanse. Running parallel with Ai Messiah’s subjective speculations on the future, Debris of Echoes – which betrays the influence of Talk Talk, Alice Coltrane, Miles Davis and Pharoah Sanders – goes the other way, casting its inner…

  • Premiere: The Zang – Drinking With You

    May 1, 2020 - By 

    The music-making moniker of Belfast artist Chris Molloy, The Zang is a project that’s ultimately about having a sense of humour even in the darkest of times. The opening track and lead single from Molloy’s forthcoming debut album, ‘Drinking With You’ is an earworming pop rock gem, doubling up as equal parts a celebration of human connection and the joy of spending time with loved ones, versus the feeling of detachment and loneliness that we are all capable of enduring. Across three minutes, it makes for a subtly anthemic, harmony-laden effort that demands a repeated listen. Released in Oiltape Studios in Belfast…

  • Album Stream: Mark Waldron-Hyden – Future Life Continuity

    April 29, 2020 - By 

    Back in the mists of time – Monday – we happily premiered ‘I Can’t See You: Where Did You Go?’ by Cork musician Mark Waldron-Hyden. Subtly scopic and immersive in all the right places, it doubled up as a suitably emphatic first taste of his stellar new album, Future Life Continuity. Released today via Cork imprint Sunshine Cult, it’s a masterfully mottled full-length effort that, perhaps more than any other Irish release we’ve heard this year thus far, fully rewards a repeated listen – not least on good speakers or headphones. Recorded over a two-month period, “in pretty intense solitude” in his studio…

  • Premiere: Myles Manley – Aaa Episode 3 and 0

    April 29, 2020 - By 

    Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been offering a first look at Aaa, a new music video series by Dublin-based artist Myles Manley. A three-part collaboration with various filmmakers, it has honed in on exactly what sets Manley apart as a genre-contorting pop auteur. In Part 1, Myles visited a group of wealthy businesspeople, seeking investment for a new streaming service, www.musiccool.ie. In Part 2, our intrepid hero suffered a bout of depression and seeking some counselling, following the rejection of Music Cool. Today, in episode 3 and 0, he frames his experiences in another way. Watch Bob Gallagher’s…

  • Stream: Danny Madigan – Bruiser

    April 27, 2020 - By 

    Danny Madigan has evidently been riding a wave of inspiration as of late. A leading light in Belfast’s somewhat unexpected, yet fully operational synth-wave scene, along with Alpha Chrome Yayo and Transpacifica, his throwback craft betrays heaps of savvy and a full-blown recognition of the weight of a hook. Across six tracks, Madigan’s new mini-album, Bruiser, takes that M.O and runs with it – far beyond the stratosphere and right back again. Bruiser by Danny Madigan