• Premiere: Martin Rössel & The Dum Dum Boys – Pablo Picasso

    November 4, 2020 - By 

    This Friday, November 6th, Belfast’s independent imprint par excellence Touch Sensitive release Hearts of Champions, the second volume of London-born producer, DJ and archivist Gareth Goddard aka Cherrystones‘ acclaimed Critical Mass series. In Goddard’s own words, the comp is “not a rare-for-rare-sake appendix of bands designed to showcase exclusivity and superiority”. Instead, we’re treated to an excavation of eighteen pure-gems from the post-punk and new wave era, featuring the likes of Konec, Loco Lotus, Siglo XX, Neon and more. Ahead of the compilation’s release via gatefold double vinyl, CD and digital on Friday, we’re pleased to present a first listen to Martin Rössel & The Dum…

  • Album Premiere: Elephant – 88

    July 20, 2018 - By 

    We’re pleased to present a first listen to 88, the second album from Dundalk artist and multi-instrumentalist Shane Clarke aka Elephant. Released today, both digitally and on 12″ vinyl via Pizza Pizza Records, Clarke has called the album “a soundtrack to my childhood and young adult life.” From the gossamer folk-pop spell of opener ‘Summer’ to the album’s glitchy closer ‘All These Dragons’, Clarke brilliantly filters bygone times, Proustian moments and lucid epiphanies of the past through a lens that always see melody and – the album’s crowning achievement – his vocals take centre-stage. Speaking about the release – which is dedicated to the…

  • Premiere: Joshua Burnside – REarranged (Lyrics Video)

    July 23, 2018 - By 

    Last month, Belfast-based singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside released one of the Irish EPs of the year thus far, the understated and masterfully candid All Round The Light Said. ‘REarranged’ was a highlight from the release, and now the track has a brand new lyric video courtesy of Blue Americans‘ Kris Platt. A bold visual accompaniment featuring the uncanny transposition of archive footage, it reframes Burnside’s words, which mine memory backwashed thoughts like very few others can. Have an exclusive first look below.  

  • Premiere: Dugout – Ride

    July 13, 2018 - By 

    One of several acts set to play the first ever Coaster in Portrush next Friday (July 20), Dugout are a new-fangled Belfast-based quartet whose debut single is a statement of intent. An earworming three-minute blast of Cuomo-conjuring indie-rock, the Ryan McGroarty-mixed, Rocky O’Reilly-engineered ‘Ride’ was, in the band’s own words, written about “that terrible job that we’ve all had.” Sealing the deal on the single is its video. Shot by Ciara McMullan and edited by Brendan Seamus aka BeeMickSee, it was filmed on location at Belfast venue Voodoo and features Dugout giving us a little preview of what to expect from their…

  • Premiere: Pinner – Head for the Bedlam

    May 24, 2017 - By 

    With the prospect of up to three new albums set for release before the end of the year, (presumed) Northern Irish punk-funk masked duo Pinner are back with a new video single, ‘Head For The Bedlam’. Released in advance of forthcoming radio single ‘Incendiary’ – which will be released ahead of Return of the Pin Vol.2: Bloody Murder Picture on June 1 – this new effort is a typically left-of-centre blast of wilfully DIY garage from the pair, whose penchant for and ease at genre-hopping should fully reveal itself on forthcoming full-length releases throughout 2017. In the meantime, have a first peek…

  • Premiere: Milky Teeth – Guess Again

    May 8, 2017 - By 

    Back in February we premiered ‘Sleepiness and Weary Wit’, the stellar debut single from Cork’s Milky Teeth AKA Robbie Barron of The Shaker Hymn and John Blek & The Rats. A single we said embodied his main influence in The Beatles, as well as Ed Harcourt, Elliott Smith circa XO/Figure 8, Friendly Fire-era Sean Lennon and Jon Brion, it hinted at some special things in the making for his forthcoming debut album. Fast forward three months and Barron is back with the similarly spectral psych-pop of its follow-up, ‘Guess Again’, a track whose subtly-symphonic, kaleidoscopic thrust and tone reveals the workings of an artist we’re certain…

  • Premiere: Cat Palace – Peddle It

    March 13, 2017 - By 

    Ever since the release of their self-titled debut EP (one of our Irish releases of 2015, no less) we’ve been keeping a close eye on Dublin’s Cat Palace. The music-making moniker of David Blaney, his output to date has struck a keen balance between perfectly sardonic social commentary and coded personal revelation, framed by his incredibly listenable brand of darkly alt-folk ruminations. With a band in tow, Blaney has returned with another stellar offering in the form of ‘Peddle It’, a single whose tropical, a e s t h e t i c-soaked visual accompaniment is perfectly at odds with the single’s shadowy tone and…

  • Premiere: Ro Gang – Smoking

    February 28, 2017 - By 

    Having previously went under the name Mr. Rosso, Dublin two-piece Isaac Clarke and Henry Ernest AKA Ro Gang will release their second album, H.E.R. – an album reportedly informed by everything from Young Thug to Burt Bacharach – via Little L Records on March 15. The first single to be taken from that, ‘Smoking’ is a typically riotous affair melding far-out lo-fi tangents with chorus-pedal-soaked tones. We’re sold. Have a first look at the video for the single – a VHS-shot effort featuring Clarke and Ernest trying, and failing, to crash a party – below.

  • Video Premiere: PORTS – The Few and Far Between

    February 7, 2017 - By 

    Having been busy in the studio recording new material, PORTS are currently gearing up for a trip to Kansas to showcase at the prestigious Folk Alliance International festival. A soaring peak from the Derry band’s debut album, The Devil Is a Songbird, ‘The Few and Far Between’ is a song that precisely distils the Derry band’s anthemic alt-pop craft. Marrying soaring crescendos with finely-woven instrumentation and sublime harmonies, it’s become something of a highlight from the Steven McCool-fronted band’s live shows as of late. Released as a single at the tail-end of last year, the song now comes accompanied with…

  • Album Premiere: Switzerland – Long Gone

    January 19, 2017 - By 

    Set for its launch upstairs in Whelan’s on Friday, January 27, Long Gone is both the first release of 2017 from Popical Island and the debut album from Dublin quartet Switzerland, a band comprised of members of Drunken Boat, Hello Moon, Land Lovers and Paddy Hanna. Having premiered its stellar lead single, ‘Starting Out’, just last month, we’re pleased to present an exclusive first listen of the album, a ten-track release that goes some distance to confirm their arrival as serious contenders. Recorded with the help of Fiachra McCarthy, who has previously produced Squarehead, Brian Walsh from the band says of the early writing…