• Album Premiere: Mark Loughrey – Treppenwitz

    October 13, 2017 - By 

    Translated roughly as ‘staircase wit’, Treppenwitz is a loaded word; an evocation of regret, of longing and succumbing to overanalysis of what could have been said. Best left to the overthinkers among us, the phenomena is the source of much of our great art, writing & comedy, and it’s something Mark Loughrey has mined and left to rumination across a breadth of the characters and worlds explored on his debut album. Whilst rooted in the wistful yearning of Nick Drake or Jeff Buckley and the kind of indie-folk that regularly wins the NI Music Prize, it’s propelled by a fearlessness to follow the creative impulse –…

  • Malojian – Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home

    October 7, 2017 - By 

    While there’s been no shortage of first-rate albums released on these shores this year, Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home by Malojian is a special kind of triumph. The self-produced follow-up to the Stephen Scullion-fronted threesome’s Steve Albini-produced This Is Nowhere, the album is a masterfully mottled effort, veering between wonderfully wistful folk tales, Motorik rhythms, found sound and a whole gamut of forward-thinking textures and ideas. And featuring the likes of Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M., Atoms For Peace, Roger Waters), Gerry Love (Teenage Fanclub), and Jon Thorne of Yorkston, Thorne & Khan, the collaborative backbone of the release runs parallel with Scullion’s open-ended, subtly experimental…

  • Porphyry – Ursa Minor/Coming Home EP

    July 24, 2017 - By 

    Experimental singer-songwriter Porphyry has just released his debut EP, Ursa Minor/Coming Home. Solely performed by Derry multi-instrumentalist Daryl Coyle, it’s an ambitious EP that’s difficult to pin down in genre, with lush arrangements and instrumental flourishes, and truly unpredictable songwriting. Independently released, it was recorded by Start Together’s Niall Doran & Smalltown America’s Caolan Austin, and mixed by Doran. The EP, although could be categorised as baroque pop, or psych-folk, or ambient, or shoegaze or even *gasp* prog rock, it manages the unenviable job of being boldly unpigeonholeable as art, and deeply personal, without approaching any level of bloated grandiosity. Check it out below – we’d…

  • Sun Collective – Sun Collective

    May 30, 2017 - By 

    Lushly arranged Irish eight-piece Sun Collective release their debut album, Snarky Puppy-style, with a show at  on Saturday June 10. Led by songwriter & composer Caimin Gilmore – who plays as the double-bassist with Lisa Hannigan – they’re comprised of classical and jazz musicians from some of Ireland’s leading groups, including Crash Ensemble. Written by Gilmore and Shane Sugrue and crafted over four years at studios in London (SARM West, of Island Records & Miloca Studios), Dublin (Steve Shannon, The Hive) and Australia. The ensemble features string trio, two pianos, three high male voices, double bass & percussion, filtered through the lens…

  • Joshua Burnside – Ephrata

    February 2, 2017 - By 

    Experimental singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside has announced the release of his debut album after a few years of silence. Ephrata is due to come out on May 5 through Quiet Arch Records – home also of Ciaran Lavery, Ryan Vail & Tucan – and was written allegedly during a creative spurt in Colombia. His only prior EP, If You’re Goin’ That Way was released in 2013. Despite Burnside playing most instruments on the album, it features a variety of recognisable local collaborators and producers throughout. Stream first single, ‘Tunnels Pt. 2’: Joshua Burnside launches Ephrata at the Duke of York on Sunday, April 30, with support from Alana…

  • Arborist – Home Burial

    October 14, 2016 - By 

    Master craftsman Mark McCambridge finally releases his debut album, Home Burial, under the guise of indie-Americana outfit Arborist, on November 11. Drawing influence from the wise, heartfelt likes of Bill Callahan & Jason Molina in terms of eclectic-yet-familiar instrumentation paired with thoughtfully-penned personal songs, it also features an indie rock pairing with Kim Deal on last year’s single, ‘Twisted Arrow‘. Recorded at Start Together Studios with Arborist drummer Ben McCauley, the album is launched in Belfast at Mr Tom’s Lounge in Lavery’s on October 28, with support from Dublin indie outfit Tandem Felix. Stream ‘I Heard Him Leaving’, Arborist’s interesting gender-subverting play on traditional Americana:

  • New Ancestors – Annabelle EP

    February 16, 2015 - By 

    Newly-expanded quartet New Ancestors, having just relocated from Glasgow back to Belfast, have announced details of their first EP as a four piece, Annabelle. Formerly a duo – called the 1930s – the core of the band are singer-guitarist Jonny Solari and drummer & singer Andrew Cameron, have now added Adam Booth and Glenn Kennedy to their ranks. The expansion has signalled a change to a more pop-rock sound, moving away from their previous folk-pop roots. The EP is released on April 13. Check out the video for the title track & single:

  • The Midnight Union Band – Of Life And Lesser Evils

    January 23, 2015 - By 

    The formation of The Midnight Union Band sounds like one of those great rock and roll stories. Peter Flynn (piano/organ/electric guitar/lapslide/mandolin), Brian McGrath (bass) and Cian Doolan (electric guitar/mandolin) had all played in a band together, but they were struggling with creating a grander sound. One day they literally stumbled upon busker Shane Joyce on the streets of Kilkenny and invited him to join the band, and with the addition of drummer John Wallace, it seems the The Midnight Union Band was truly born. After the release of five song EP Behind The Truth in 2013 and a year of…

  • Sun Kil Moon @ The Button Factory

    December 11, 2014 - By 

    There’s a relaxed, seasonal warmth upon entering the Button Factory for tonight’s mostly seated, limited capacity show, which sees Mark Kozelek at possibly the most critically acclaimed stage of his career – almost every song performed tonight comes from the last two years of his career – due in no small part to this year’s Sun Kil Moon LP, the mortality-fixated Benji. With no support act, Kozelek ambles onstage accompanied simply by a keyboardist and electric guitarist, standing with a sole tea-towelled drumstick for his lone tom, holding a straight beat with the intent of a serial killer for the entirety…

  • Meb Jon Sol – Southpaw Niños

    October 14, 2014 - By 

    Belfast-based folk singer-songwriter Michael McCullagh AKA Meb Jon Sol has been on something of a far-reaching musical expedition since his Colenso Parade days. A far cry musically from the starry-eyed indie pop of the latter – now defunct – Omagh five-piece, McCullagh’s debut solo album bears the lyrical and thematic imprint of wisdom and experience throughout, each track underpinned by the inner workings of wanderlust or quixotic wondering. Preceded by “yeo!”-generating singles ‘Leave All Your Troubles With Me‘ and ‘Captain of this Ship‘, Southpaw Niños strikes a keen balance between self-reflection and knowingly cavalier abandon, McCullagh’s quasi-mystical, eager tales of the open road and distant…