Recorded with The Answer guitarist Paul Mahon, ‘War Cry’ is a statement of intent from Belfast trio Louis Nelson, Jordan Evans and Stuart Robinson AKA Gnarkats. Having already revealed their knack for blending heavy rock riffs with indie-pop melodies via previous effort including ‘Something to Say’ and ‘Enigma’, their new single shows a band whose huge choruses and fuzzed-out tangents are quickly setting them apart. Check out the band’s DIY video for the single below.
After a busy year of writing and performing, supporting the likes of David Kitt, I Draw Slow & Wyvern Lingo, singer-songwriter Bróna Keogh’s new single ‘Sea Witch’ has arrived. With a vibrant video by Ed Cleary that accentuates the organic quality of her writing, Keogh melds folk with the hopeful wist of 60s pop, measured in its use of diverse acoustic instrumentation and harmony. It was recorded by Michael Hogerzeil & mastered by Eoin Whitfiled. As with the many Irish music festivals she’ll win hearts and weary minds at, ‘Sea Witch’ possesses the ability to restore basic human functions and feelings…
Blending electronic complexity with their unique strand of primal noise, one of Belfast’s most engaging live & recorded propositions over the last three years, Hiva Oa, have released new single ‘Souvenir’. It’s experimental, but far from inaccessible. Anchored by its bassline, driven by a Detroit hi-hat-led narrative, its crepuscular groove is that of someone dancing in isolation in a long-abandoned post-industrial dystopia, reluctantly alone. With cover art by Helen Tubridy, the trio – Stephen Houlihan, Christine Tubridy & Chris McCorry, with help from Edinburgh’s Matthew Collings and Daithi McNabb – mangle fragmented guitar & synthesised textures with borderline glossolalic vocals on the track, contrasting space and claustrophobia – as is…
Belfast experimental rock quartet Blue Whale are finally set to launch their highly anticipated debut album Process, which reins the satiating havoc of their live show into a slightly more ordered studio format. The havoc, however, will come to the Menagerie on November 9, where its launch is hosted by Moving On Music. With an aim to always been to veer away from the trappings of the traditional guitar-centric four-piece, they have experimented heavily with unconventional scales and time signatures. Their cadenced, angular and atonal compositions tread fine lines between dance and discord, chaos and intricacy, with the resultant aural tension unique in its capacity to simultaneously provoke mental…
The closing track from one of the EPs of the year, Superior Fiction, ‘Lunar Drift’ by Galway’s Eoin Dolan is a slow-burning masterclass in the realms of wistful alt-pop. Released today, the single – which carries one of the finest refrains we’ve heard from an Irish artist in quite some time – comes accompanied with visuals by Dolan’s friend and collaborator David Boland AKA New Pope (who also created the video for the release’s title track).
Having bridged the gap with the equally masterful ‘Liberté’ and ‘D U S T’ (a track Resident Advisor called “surging but melancholy synth pop”) Belfast-based producer and musician Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party is back with ‘D a N S E’. The second single from his forthcoming second album, which is set for release next month, it finds the fast-rising multi-instrumentalist marry spectral electronica with a host of backwashed beats. Listen to the track – and watch its DIY visuals – below. Magee plays our co-hosted Culture Night Belfast bill at Oh Yeah Music Centre on Friday night (September 21).
London-based Irish duo Matthew Sutton (Tayne) and Niall Jackson (Bouts/Swimmers Jackson) AKA Sweat Threats know a thing or two about striking a balance between trouncing post-punk and pit-starting party music. The third single to be taken from their forthcoming EP, Sweet Treats, ‘Suffocate’ fits the aforementioned remit and then some. Accompanied with DIY visuals, it’s a typically pulverizing effort that doesn’t slack on the earworms. Sweet Treats is out via Wonky Karousel Records on October 13 (Cassette Store Day, no less.) Sweat Threats play tomorrow The Victoria E17 in Walthamstow tomorrow (Wednesday 12th) night.
Tony Wright is going through the most fertile creative stretch of his career right now. Unanimously positive reviews have accompanied the release of the third VerseChorusVerse album, outro, while his new, much-anticipated memoir Another Dickhead (On The Road) is to be launched at Belfast’s The MAC on October 17 – more details on that here – where he also currently happens to be the resident artist. Oh, and he just put in an organic performance co-starring in the heavily relatable Belfast-based short comedy series The Also Rans, the (only partly-fictionalised) tale of a pair of failed musicians. And after all that preamble, we’re today premiering the video for possibly the LP’s finest cut, ‘Chord (Gunn Laws)’. Something…
Eight months on from being featured as one of our 18 for ’18 acts, Dublin collective Sun Mahshene are back with the video for their strongest single effort to date, ‘Tales of Fiction’. Blurring the lines between the band’s hazy brand of psych-speckled indie, the July single is brought to life via director Gerard Walsh’s narrative-driven video, which stars Ieva Grigaite and Desmond Eastwood. Have a first look below.
Last year we had the pleasure of premiering the first two singles from Milky Teeth AKA Robbie Barron of The Shaker Hymn and John Blek & The Rats. Some sixteen months on, the Cork musician returns in his solo guise. During some downtime from Shaker Hymn commitments over the summer, Barron put the final touches on the debut Milky Teeth album, which is set for release within the coming months. Produced, engineered, and mixed in his home studio, new single, the sublime ‘Waiting Up For You’ is another wonderfully crafted dose of alt-pop from Barron, and a taste of what to expect from his forthcoming full-length solo LP. A montage of…