• Video Premiere: Vivid Dreamer – This Is Not Living

    July 9, 2020 - By 

    Something you may have missed amidst the maelstrom of new releases last Bandcamp Friday was the surprise announcement of Vivid Dreamer, a collaborative project between two of Belfast’s synth-pop creators par excellence. Today, they’re lifting the cloche on second single ‘This Is Not Living’, ahead of the release of their eponymous debut album this Sunday, July 12. Both as producers and songwriters – with the likes of Oppenheimer, Beauty Sleep, Malibu Shark Attack, Wonder Villains, amongst others – Rocky O’Reilly & Ryan McGroarty been directly or indirectly integral in the sound of no shortage of Northern Ireland’s most essential listening across the last 15-odd years. Vivid Dreamer…

  • Stream: The 343 Vol 1

    May 1, 2020 - By 

    In virtually no time at all, Belfast’s 343 has established itself as a vital part of the city’s creative community. An artist-focused, feminist-led, queer art-space in East Belfast, it’s one of many venues fighting to survive during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Currently fundraising as part of a national initiative launched by the Music Venue Trust, the 343 are going one further with the release of the aptly-titled The 343 Vol 1. Across fifteen tracks, it’s an endlessly listenable, perfectly genre-traversing compilation, featuring TTA favourites Rising Damp, Natalia Beylis, Elaine Howley, Gross Net & Fears and more. Best of all, seeing as Bandcamp…

  • the arts column: lockdown

    April 3, 2020 - By 

    Whilst art is almost always intended to resonate in non-physical ways, sparking inspiration, challenging perceptions, eliciting responses and generation debate, it is almost always delivered in person in specific spaces be they galleries hosting shows or talks, museums showcasing collections, libraries inviting people to browse books, etc. In these uncertain times, we have the double blow of losing access to these institutions at a time when escape to them is most needed. That said over the last number of days and weeks we have seen the art community in Ireland pivot to its new online world providing platforms for digital…

  • Premiere: Ghost Office – The Face of Garbo

    March 19, 2020 - By 

    Arguably Belfast’s finest post-punk pragmatists, Ghost Office are back with ‘The Face of Garbo’, the second single from their forthcoming debut album, set for release later this summer. Marrying propulsive – near King Gizzard-esque – psych-flecked chaos with a macro-anthology narrative of fables spanning across time & disciplines, it’s one of their most artistically complete works thus far. The single was produced by bassist Carl Small, with lyrical duties from guitarist/shared vocalist Joe Gilson, who tells us more: “The song tells three stories, of events that cast their makers into myth. The solar eclipse that proved Albert Einstein’s law of relativity, the opera singer Enrico Caruso being threatened…

  • Premiere: Gas Hands – I’m Not In Love (With You)

    March 5, 2020 - By 

    Been missing that singular blend of melodic punk rock and post-hardcore that NI – not least the North-West – has mastered for over two decades? Derry-based trio Gas Hands are here to sort you out with their latest single, ‘I’m Not In Love (With You)’. Formed by frontman & guitarist Dylan Bradley & drummer Michael Brown, formerly of Lost Avenue, they’re joined by Mosmo Strange/Calling All Horses guitarist Nolan Donnelly on bass. Recorded & mixed at Smalltown America Studios by Caolan Austin, the trio’s economical, tightly knit release strikes a midpoint between signature North-West punk and the vitality of a young band hitting their stride. Gas Hands kick off their…

  • Video Premiere: Problem Patterns – Gal Pals

    February 14, 2020 - By 

    A silver lining to the three year cloud of political deadlock in Northern Ireland, today marks the first Valentine’s Day with equal marriage laws, with the first same-sex marriages having taken place earlier this week. Belfast punk quartet Problem Patterns have chosen to celebrate that fact with a video for catchiest single to date, ‘Gal Pals’ whose bubblegum exterior belies an incisive social satire – or in their own words: “Part social commentary, part potential theme tune for a cult queer romcom”. Each member of the band – which comprises Alanah Smith, Ciara King, Beverley Boal & Bethany Crooks – leads a verse, each of which deals with various stages in the…

  • 10 for ’20: Son Zept

    February 7, 2020 - By 

    In the second installment of 10 for ’20 – our new series previewing ten Irish acts we’re convinced are set for great things in 2020 and beyond – Stevie Lennox introduces one of the most forward-thinking, fast-rising electronic artists, Belfast polymath Son Zept. Photo by Niall Fegan We last chatted to Liam McCartan, aka Son Zept, in 2018 when his debut Q2B EP was released in the early days of his PhD at Belfast’s Sonic Arts Research Centre. A maximalist series of curveballing deconstructed club pieces that landed in the ears of Objekt – who has been closing sets with its cuts – and Avalon…

  • Premiere: Ghost Office – Cereal Café

    December 5, 2019 - By 

    Belfast post-punk trio Ghost Office are set to release their effervescent, jerking new single ‘Cereal Café’ tomorrow, December 6th. Their first release since 2018’s excellent ‘Here Come The Elders!‘, it was written in a half hour frenzy, voicing, through Stewart Lee-tinged wordplay, drummer/vocalist Richard Bailie’s dismay at realising, finally, “that they have opened a cereal cafe in London, selling all the milks.” Almond milk, regular milk, and so on. ‘Cereal Café’ is their “grand anti-gentrification anthem”. “Listeners will perhaps question whether they are several years too late, especially considering the flagrant gentrification of the Ormeau Road area of Belfast [“Catch it,before the gentrifiers come“, as the Guardian recently, tardily ordered],…

  • Split EP Premiere: Mob Wife / Cruiser

    November 27, 2019 - By 

    It’s easy for bands to serve up those oft. espoused platitudes about the value of “co-operation in the music scene”, but to be pro-active in that is another matter entirely. Gladly, we’re seeing that attitude start to spread, with the latest in the trend being two of the most exciting DIY, guitar-driven bands on the island coming together for a split EP release. Mob Wife/Cruiser features, unsurprisingly, two tracks each from Belfast trio Mob Wife and Limerick quartet Cruiser, conceived of in early 2019. Both with their own singular imprint, Mob Wife and Cruiser share the emotionally-charged influence of 90s post-hardcore and fist-clenched modern indie rock & punk sensibility, as well…

  • Album Stream: Careerist – Weird Hill

    November 15, 2019 - By 

    It’s been a long, weird (sorry) trip up to this point, but the debut album for Belfast’s slickest indie rock trio Careerist (fka Hot Cops) is upon us. Weird Hill‘s nine tracks manage to slink through any number of influences and curveballs without losing coherence, clocking in at just under a half-hour. The wry smirk of Pavement can be glanced through buoyant, Deerhunter-sized melodies and slaloming Spaghetti Western guitar work, while the trio’s distinct, jerking sense of otherness remains consistent throughout. The LP was recorded & produced by Robocobra Quartet’s Chris Ryan, who does justice to the band’s reputation as one of Ireland’s tightest, most…