• Premiere: Carriages – Hardest Mile

    September 21, 2017 - By 

    Dublin duo Harry Bookless and Aaron Page AKA Carriages are an act that we’ve followed closely over the last few years. Spearheading an experimental folk aesthetic that comprises nature, open spaces and facets of the modern world, their music masterfully blurs the lines between the external world and internal processes, as well as electronic textures and organic sounds. Doubling up as the debut release on Homebeat Presents (an imprint we’re very excited about looking ahead to next year and beyond), the pair’s forthcoming new EP Movement is a five-track masterstroke melding Bookless’ found sound electronic atmospherics and elemental production with the inimitable soulful and…

  • Video Premiere: John Blek – Salt In The Water

    September 18, 2017 - By 

    More than many of his peers and others of his ilk further afield, Cork songsmith John Blek is a master of subtlety in realms of folk-informed pop. Set for release on October 6, his third studio album, Catharsis Vol. 1, is a release that – as its title duly attests – stems from some personal hardship. Speaking of the release, Blek said: “I spent much of the early part of 2017 in and out of hospital with some mysterious illness that was intent on wasting my now 30-year-old body. My energy was at an all-time low and all that gave me…

  • Video Premiere: Elder Druid – Witchdoctor

    September 15, 2017 - By 

    Belfast-based sludge doom five-piece Elder Druid are self-proclaimed “Occult-laced riff dealers” on a mission. Having impressed with their debut EP, Magicka, in September last year, the band – who count the holy, hazed-out tetrad Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard, Kyuss and Sleep as key influences – will release their pummelling full-length release, Carmina Satanae, early next month. Produced by Niall Doran at Belfast’s Start Together Studio, the record is a fist-clenched, eight-track statement of intent from the fast-rising, Gregg McDowell-fronted band. A highlight from the release, lead single ‘Witchdoctor’ evolves from straight-up riff worship to the slowly bludgeoning self-exorcism of its Electric…

  • Stream: Ryan Vail – Shadows

    September 13, 2017 - By 

    Having released one of the finest Irish electronic albums of 2016 in For Every Silence, Derry’s Ryan Vail is back with one of his strongest single efforts to date, ‘Shadows’. Released via Belfast imprint Quiet Arch, the track’s warm synth lines and glitchy textures forge strong bed for Vail’s words to hit home with masterfully restrained force. Released via Belfast imprint Quiet Arch, the track’s warm synth lines, glitchy textures and subtly propulsive beats create a quietly rapt bed for Vail’s words to hit home with typically restrained force. Sealing the deal is an outro blending the aforementioned with cello courtesy of Laura…

  • Stream: Just Mustard – Tainted

    September 13, 2017 - By 

    Dundalk five-piece Just Mustard are a band whose cloistered craft mines influence from noise, trip-hop, electronic and lo-fi sounds. With their debut album set for release in early 2018, new single ‘Tainted’ – which was self-produced, recorded by Chris Ryan and David Noonan, mixed by Noonan and mastered by Tony Fitz – is a  ‘gaze drenched effort whose repetitive, smoggy swoon and tremolo-armed spell marry to propel a track made for soundtracking solitary, stoned night walks reflecting on what needs to be done. We’re fans. Tainted [single] by Just Mustard

  • Any Joy – Cycles

    September 13, 2017 - By 

    Following its digital release earlier in the year, Cork psych-tinted post-punk outfit Any Joy release their debut album, Cycles on vinyl. The five piece, formed at the start of this year by Oisin Dineen, self-released the album earlier in 2017 digitally, Cycles. With all the hallmarks of a great post-punk indie rock record – glistening guitars, anxiety-fuelled lyrics centred around the cyclical nature of thought – its psychedelic hue, peppered with documentary samples & unexpected instrumentation while maintaining a healthy minimalism that avoids any air of pomposity, à la Parquet Courts; you can add Any Joy to the list of essential post-punk & psychedelic bands from a city…

  • Video Premiere: Malojian – Ambulance Song

    September 11, 2017 - By 

    The highly-anticipated follow-up to last year’s Steve Albini-produced This Is Nowhere, Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home by Malojian was partly recorded in a lighthouse off the coast of Northern Ireland. Speaking of the release, the band’s main man Stephen Scullion said, “A few months ago the British Film Institute and Northern Ireland screen contacted me to see if I’d be interested in playing a gig at a coastal location, with coastal-themed visuals from their archive to be used as a backdrop. This sounded very cool to me and the more I thought about it, I began to get really into the…

  • Stream: Rory Nellis – Friend of a Friend

    September 11, 2017 - By 

    Over the last few months, Belfast singer-songwriter Rory Nellis has been releasing each track from his forthcoming second album – There Are Enough Songs In The World – as standalone singles. A bold move and no mistake, but the approach has served to isolate each song in its own right, building up and developing a narrative that is clearly threaded throughout the release. With previous singles largely drawing from quieter worlds and reflecting upon more intimate things, ‘Friend of a Friend’ is a straight-up burst of stellar indie rock, forging slick synth arpeggios with yet another steady slew of first-rate harmonic twists and…

  • Premiere: The Shaker Hymn – Dead Trees

    September 6, 2017 - By 

    Look far and wide but you’ll struggle to find a more consistent Irish act that Cork quartet The Shaker Hymn. Following a busy few months of extensive touring, as well as featuring on the soundtrack to breakout Irish film Handsome Devil, the band also found time to record their forthcoming third studio album. The lead single from that (which doubles up as the follow-up to last year’s stellar Do You Think You’re Clever) ‘Dead Trees’ is a wonderfully-crafted three-minute burst of slick, psych-tinged rock, conjuring the likes of Ty Segall, Supergrass, early The Coral and more. Recorded straight to tape by producer Brendan Fennessy,…

  • Premiere: Brand New Friend – Hate It When You Have To Go

    September 1, 2017 - By 

    Few Irish bands have had a stronger 2017 than fast-rising North Coast quartet Brand New Friend. Having featured them as an Inbound one-to-watch act in our magazine this time last year, we’re pleased to present a first listen to the band’s virulent new single ‘Hate It When You Have To Go’. Clocking in at just over two minutes, the track – conjuring everyone from Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle ato early Ash – perfectly distils the Taylor Johnson-fronted foursome’s peerless brand of starry-eyed lo-fi indie-pop. Check out the band at Cosby Stage at Electric Picnic this Sunday at 2pm and a…