• Premiere: Oisin O’Scolai & The Virginia Slims – Join Me in The Ground

    July 27, 2018 - By 

    Hailing from Donegal, Derry-based artist Oisin O’Scolai is most certainly one to watch. Very accurately being dubbed by his label, Belfast’s Black Tragick Records, as “the Buncrana Beck” (alternatively “if Harry Nilsson was from Donegal” or a latter day Paul Westerberg if he hadn’t have got drunk with the Stinson brothers and started The Replacements”). Self-recorded and released as Oisin O’Scolai and the Virginia Slims, the stellar, slow-burning gothic-folk of ‘Join Me in the Ground’ was mixed Ben McAuley and sees O’Scolai wield subtlety and pathos like a scythe. Taken from his forthcoming debut album, Vacant Sea, the single comes yet more…

  • Premiere: Slouch – Petty Sounds

    July 25, 2018 - By 

    One of our must-see acts at this year’s KnockanStockan in Co. Wicklow this weekend, Dublin threesome Slouch are in a league of their own here when it comes to fuzzed-out, curveballing alt-rock that hits that rare sweet spot between scuzz, low-end groove, intricacy and abandon. A textbook case in point, brand new single ‘Petty Sounds’ – which we’re pleased to premiere below – will be familiar to anyone who has caught Conor Wilson, Kev Shannon and Malachy Burke live over the last couple of years. Littered with submerged arpeggios and eruptions of amp-choking noise, it’s the sound of walking through a…

  • Watch: Our Krypton Son – Falling In Love Is A Suicide Mission (Ryan Vail Mix)

    July 24, 2018 - By 

    A highlight from his critically-devoured second album Fleas & Diamonds, ‘Love Is a Suicide Mission’ by Derry artist Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son captures his elegiac, carefully-woven craft in under four minutes. Now, fellow Derry artist and producer Ryan Vail (pictured) has delivered his own curveballing take of the single, which was originally released back in May. Mining the track’s heart-rending melodic twists and turns, it evolves from skeletal, contorted electronica to a reveal a simmering, low-key dancefloor jam.  

  • Premiere: Eoin Dolan – Superior Fiction

    July 23, 2018 - By 

    The title cut from an EP that he will release at the end of August, ‘Superior Fiction’ is a self-proclaimed ode to truth” that finds Galway songsmith Eoin Dolan in particularly inspired form. Equally parts breezy and incisive, its forward-moving surf-pop sway melds woozy keyboard lines with a harmonic and lyrical sensibility that continue to make his lo-fi, sci-fi-tinted craft a joy to behold. Featuring Conor Deasy on guitar/backing vocals, James Casserly on drums and Adam Sheeran on bass, Superior Fiction was self-recorded, mastered by Fergal Davis and will be released in association with Citog Records. Have a first listen to its title track below.

  • 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: A Ritual Sea – Seasons (Like You)

    July 19, 2018 - By 

    Set to be launched at Dublin’s Drop Dead Twice on August 9, ‘Seasons (Just Like You)’ finds A Ritual Sea mining pure inspiration from dream-pop, shoegaze and indie textures. The second single to be taken from the Dublin band’s forthcoming debut album – which is expected to arrive in early 2019 – the song explores the themes of fear, paranoia and falling in love, asking, as the band puts it, |if we ever really fully know another person; navigating the slow unveiling of our true personalities – changeable, unpredictable, and ever-shifting.” Filmed by Fabian Chombart in Lioux, a region in the South…

  • Premiere: CATALAN! – Espionage

    July 16, 2018 - By 

    Despite having played only a handful of dates since emerging in July last year, Ewen Friers’ self-coined insurgency rock project CATALAN! has made a considerable dent on the Northern Irish music scene over the last few months. His latest effort, ‘Espionage’ has felt like bona fide single material since we first caught wind of it at a show in Belfast back in October. In characteristic Friers fashion, it commingles wide-eyed hope with full-blown melodies, and fuzzed-out bombast with lyrics that bring defiant people in foreign lands vividly to life. Curated by Friers, CATALAN! play the downright unmissable Coaster in Portrush this Friday…

  • 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…

  • Stream: Arvo Party – Tired Eyes (fear. LARKS)

    July 10, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of making his solo debut performance at Mandela Hall’s curtain call on July 27, Belfast musician and producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party is back with collaborative new single ‘Tired Eyes’. Featuring sublime guest vocals from Fiona O’Kane AKA LARKS, it’s a first-rate, FM-flirting electro-pop gem that not only confines within its unfurling four minutes Magee’s keen versatility as a producer – it doubles up as a stop-gap ahead of the release of Arvo Party’s second album, which is pipped for release next month. Details to be announced. In the meantime, give this a blast or two.  

  • Naive Ted drops fierce new Magazines mixtape: Stream

    July 9, 2018 - By 

    Naive Ted is nothing if not one of Ireland’s most prolific and criminally underrated artists. Last year, for example, we were blown away by the Limerick-based scratch master and frenetic, experimental hip hop producer’s MuRli featuring The Minute Particulars // Episode I – The death of my trust is sincerely yours album and its subsequent instalments. Now, the masked producer has returned with yet another mixtape. This time, available for free via Soundcloud. It’s, as expected, absolutely buck wild. Wielding a sort of hectic poeticism throughout, Ted’s frenetic beats, sampling and machine bashing make for a chaotic but constantly exhilarating listen. You can also download the release…