• Stream: Slow Riot – City of Culture

    June 10, 2015 - By 

    Something of a statement of intent, the bio section of Limerick trio Slow Riot’s Facebook page reads, “Slow Riot came together make something altogether different. A soundtrack to a existential noir novel. Something you might here on the local radio station on a drive through Twin Peaks? Either way its all parts dark, brooding and core rattling.” Wearing their patent noise and post-punk influences on their collective sleeve, the band’s debut single, ‘City of Culture’, comes roaring out of the traps and conjures the likes of Art Brut, Wire, Interpol, Sonic Youth and Girl Band at different points throughout its three-and-half-minutes. Promising…

  • Watch: The Emerald Armada – This House

    June 10, 2015 - By 

    Hands down one of the country’s very best live acts, Northern Irish alt-folk trouveurs The Emerald Armada have spent the last few years building a loyal, suitably armada-like fanbase. With a new EP set for release in November – the highly-anticipated follow-up to last year’s sublime Five Beating Hearts EP – the Neil Allen-fronted five-piece have unveiled the video for their new single, ‘This House’. Betraying a real sense of pop-centric progression from the band, the video for the song – recorded by Start Together’s Rocky O’Reilly – was directed and edited by Wilson Lynn.  

  • Watch: MOLARBEAR – Highclops

    June 10, 2015 - By 

    A year on from grabbing our attention with their debut single, ‘Fierce Brosnan’, back in August last year, Belfast-based riffmasters general MOLARBEAR have unleashed the equal parts lethal and livid ‘Highclops’. Comprised of members from Jackalfeud and the Big Grizzly, the band recorded the six-minute track at Belfast’s Bearcat Studios. Its video, for all its inventiveness, borders on the nightmare-inducing. Nightmares you want to have and tell everyone about. Not that they’ll listen, but you’ll still tell them. Anyway. Watch the video for ‘Highclops’ below.

  • Watch: August Wells – Here In The Wild

    June 4, 2015 - By 

    Hands down one of our favourite songs of the year, ‘Here In The Wild’ by the Ken Griffin-fronted August Wells has been brought to life with a superb, rather touching video courtesy of Sean Nagin. Summoning the pensive, reflective chamber pop of Richard Hawley and the gloriously elongated vocals of early Ian McCullough, the song was recently released via Cork’s FIFA Records. Speaking to our writer Eoin Murray last month, Griffin – previously of Dublin indie rock band Rollerskate Skinny – said, “I chatted with Eddie (Kiely) from the label and I found his attitude very refreshing, and he seemed to genuinely love the…

  • Stream: Tomorrows – The Circle

    June 3, 2015 - By 

    With the turn of summer rather precariously around the corner, Dublin band Tomorrows have offered up a sun-kissed, melancholy-tinged one-track soundtrack in the form of ‘The Circle’. Conjuring the likes of the Spinto Band and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, the track follows on very nicely from the equally impressive ‘Another Life’ and ‘Free’, going that bit further and hitting home with its simple, warped pop wanderlust. We’re big fans.

  • Stream: Girls Names – Reticence

    June 1, 2015 - By 

    Three months on from the release of eleven-minute post-punk odyssey ‘Zero Triptych’, Girls Names have re-emerged with one of the their strongest tracks to date, ‘Reticence’. With guitars returning to centre-stage from the off, the track unravels from a scourging intro to reveal a band exuding an air of confidence in the latest manifestation of their constantly evolving yet always instantly recognisable sound. Stream the track – taken from the band’s forthcoming album Arms Around a Vision – below.

  • Watch: Paddy Hanna – Camaraderie

    May 29, 2015 - By 

    The b-side to his earworming ‘Austria’ single, ‘Camaraderie‘ by Dublin singer-songwriter Padda Hanna is a decidedly more reflective, inward-looking affair, touching upon Hanna’s struggles with intense depression. A swooning, Americana-tinged jangle-pop evoking the likes of Pedro The Lion and self-titled-era Elliott Smith, the track is accompanied by a touching, equally static and stoic video by Luke Byrne. Speaking of the track, Hanna said, “Last summer I was crippled with depression, to the point where I was physically and mentally too sick to stand. I spent many weeks alone in my cottage growing ever more paranoid of the outside world and the joyful cheers…

  • Watch: BAILER – Call Off The Unknown

    May 26, 2015 - By 

    One of the strongest heavy single releases from an Irish act this year so far, Cork metalcore quartet BAILER have unveiled the video for their vehement new single, ‘Call Off The Unknown’. Reminiscent of Ire Works-era Dillinger Escape Plan and Reuben’s more abrasive efforts, the track – recorded and mixed by Aidan Cunningam of Murdock – bursts out of the traps without the slightest hint of hesitation, cuing two and a half minutes of relentless and rabid riffage. Truth be told, we’ve listened to it five times on repeat already. BAILER band will release their debut EP later in the year. Grab a…

  • Stream: Cut Once – Forget About The World

    May 25, 2015 - By 

    One of our featured Inbound acts in our May magazine, Dublin duo Michael Heffernan and Aisling Browne AKA Cut Once have released their second single, ‘Let’s Forget About The World’. Clocking in at over just over four minutes in the length, the tracks is a stripped-back, hook-filled effort taken from their debut EP, Institution, suggesting some serious potential for the fast-rising pair.

  • EP Stream: Craft Work – 3 Songs

    May 25, 2015 - By 

    A more abstracted and sample-heavy affair when paired against the comparatively more linear jazz-punk experimentalism of his band, Robocobra Quartet, Belfast-based musician and producer Chris Ryan AKA Craft Work has unveiled 3 Songs, a triptych of hip-hop-leaning tracks featuring samples from the likes of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Olivier Messiaen and Steve Reich.  Whilst parallels can be drawn to Ryan’s Beat-like lyricism in the aforementioned quartet (who play our Tuesday Throwdown at Belfast’s Lavery’s tomorrow night, don’t you know?), there is a distinctive open-ended sense of freedom to the release that lends to its all-too-brief charm and appeal. 3 Songs by Craft Work