• Premiere: Fox Colony – Patterns EP

    May 1, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of its release on May 4, we’re delighted to premiere the new EP from Belfast-based emo-tinged indie rock trio Fox Colony, Patterns. Associates & former bandmates of indie-pop outfit Brand New Friend, the young band recorded Patterns with Start Together Studios’ Rocky O’Reilly and have the uncanny ability to craft a tune without the usual fear of wearing their hearts – or accents – on their sleeves. The EP takes some cues from the current emo-pop revival of Modern Baseball, with slight glimmers of early ’90s alt. rock sophistication & dischordance seeping in that belies their youth. Patterns will be available from Bandcamp – both digitally on…

  • Stream: Vogelbat – Lithx (feat. Sad Mermaid

    April 27, 2017 - By 

    From 2015’s ‘Miw’ right through to ‘Ovl’ – a stellar single released back in September of last year – we’ve been closely following the output of Berlin-based Kilkenny producer and soundtrack composer Dave Sheenan AKA Vogelbat. New track ‘Lithx’ continues his run in fine fashion. Featuring Sad Mermaid – who featured on both the aforementioned singles – it’s another first-rate slice of ambient-leading electronica, melding shuddering pockets of rhythm, synth swells and abstracted vocals over nigh on five minutes. We dig it. Check it out.

  • Album Premiere and Q+A: Ships – Precession

    April 27, 2017 - By 

    The product of two long years of writing, demoing, debating and recording, Dublin electronic duo Ships will release their debut album – and one of the Irish albums of the year – on Monday. Ahead of its official release, have an exclusive first listen to Precession and read our interview with Simon Cullen and Sorca McGrath from the fast-rising outfit below. What was the writing process like for the album? And are there are any overarching main themes? The songs were written over the space of two years or so and the idea of the album gathered momentum over time.…

  • Stream: Skymas – BubbleDub

    April 26, 2017 - By 

    Back in September last year, Belfast duo Martin Corrigan (ex-Alloy Mental) and Nick Todd AKA Skymas released one of our Irish tracks of 2016 in the form of ‘No Easy Way Out‘. Seven months on, the pair are back with its follow-up, the equally virulent electro-rock blast of ‘BubbleDub’. Featuring none other than Stephen Leacock (Franklyn/ex-General Fiasco) on guitar, it’s a typically propulsive – and masterfully bombastic – banger from the pair, released a day ahead of supporting K-X-P at Belfast’s Voodoo as part of this year’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. Propelled by Corrigan’s chorus refrain of “solution in destruction” the…

  • Premiere: Elma – Drive

    April 26, 2017 - By 

    One of the hardest working – and masterfully diverse – musicians in the island of Ireland, Derry multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and songwriter Eoin O’Callaghan makes music both under the moniker Best Boy Grip and as part of Wake America. Adding yet another string to his sonic bow, new project Elma explores more more open-ended, soundscape-based terrain. A seven-month process in which O’Callaghan exclusively used analog gear – a Revox 77B tape machine, cello, bass and a bunch of synths – the project is predominantly instrumental in nature, but will also feature snippets of conversation with a Peruvian hermit by the name of Dolama. According to…

  • Video Premiere: Beach – Bram Toker

    April 26, 2017 - By 

    Released earlier this month, we said ‘Bram Toker’ by Dublin neo-psychedelic five-piece Beach was an effort confirming their arrival as a band to be “considered alongside fellow Irish sonic diviners The Altered Hours and Elastic Sleep“. A few short weeks later, the single – one of our favourite by Irish act this year – comes bearing a visual accompaniment, directed and animated by Ross Ryder. Have a first look at that below. Beach will play a Knockanstockan Presents show in Whelan’s on May 12, as well as their first headline in London on May 18 at the Islington.

  • Hornets – Witch Hunt

    April 24, 2017 - By 

    Having spent the last few years establishing themselves around Belfast originally as a trio before expanding to become a quartet, the heft-laden hardcore act Hornets finally release their debut album, Witch Hunt on May 19. Witch Hunt will be the first release on newly established promotion & record label Solid Choice Industries – who have in just the last 2 months, brought Belfast rare shows from the likes of Russian Circles and Grails. Hornets’ latest release hugely broadens their scope and dynamic, taking blast-beat-led detours through visceral crust punk & cacophonic, harshly atmospheric black metal, without losing their trademark moments of Mastodon-esque gargantuan proportion.…

  • Watch: Daithí (feat. Sinead White) – Aeroplane

    April 24, 2017 - By 

    Ahead of the release of his Holiday Home EP this Friday 28 April, Daithí has revealed another shimmering pop-leaning cut. Welcoming back regular collaborator Sinead White for a typically excellent guest vocal, ‘Aeroplane’ is a more melodic cut than the EP’s propulsive title track from last month. Despite its dancefloor focus, the track maintains its organic atmosphere through breezy keys, recorded natural samples and White’s voice, reminiscent at points of some of SBTRKT‘s collaborations. The song is brought to life by the accompanying video which features footage shot in Daithí’s hometown of Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare from the 90s. Speaking of the track…

  • Video Premiere: Sullivan & Gold – Guatemala

    April 24, 2017 - By 

    Once a duo, Sullivan & Gold is the music-making moniker of Derry’s Benjamin Robinson, formerly of the Good Fight. Aptly positing his music as “the perfect accompaniment to falling in or out of love”, his output to date has straddled wistfulness and deliverance in fine fashion, something that’s more than apparent on new single ‘Guatemala’. A heart-rending ballad taken from a new full-length set for release in late 2017, the track “tells the tale of a long distance relationship between a young couple; a newly qualified primary school teacher teaching in the north coast of Northern Ireland and a young Northern Irish…

  • Hiva Oa – Mk 2 (Part 2)

    April 21, 2017 - By 

    Brooding, atmospheric Belfast-based duo Hiva Oa release their new EP, Mk II (Part 2), following up on last year’s in-parenthesis Part 1. Based around core members Stephen Houlihan & Christine Tubridy, with outside help from Matthew Collings, Daithi McNabb & Chris McCorry, the pair lived in Edinburgh for several years before returning to Ireland and instilling new life into the project. Hiva Oa’s recent material has taken some cues in mood from post-punk & experimental electronica, filtered through the lens of contemporary indie music, not without its pop merit – paving a sonic path not unlike that of latter day Radiohead. The EP displays a breadth of unrestricted instrumentation & arrangements by band’s…