• New Online Initiative for Northern Irish Music, Music Connections, Launches

    July 2, 2021 - By 

    A new online initiative championing Northern Irish music has launched. Off the back of news that live music can return to the north from July 5th, Music Connections is a central online hub created to support the development and growth of NI’s diverse and talented music sector. As well as featuring information on evcents, funding opportunities, health services and the latest funding opportunities, the website will also signpost musicians, freelancers, music organisations and music businesses towards vital information to support their career. In a statement, Lynne Best of The Fourth Pillar said, “The music sector in Northern Ireland has a…

  • Video Premiere: Gnarkats – All The Time

    January 21, 2021 - By 

    Ahead of the release of their highly-anticipated new The Dreamer EP tomorrow, we’re pleased to share a first look at the video for ‘All The Time’ by Belfast three-piece Gnarkats. Delivering another dose of the band’s increasingly earworming brand of alt-rock, the track now comes accompanied by a stellar video courtesy of photographer and filmmaker Niall Fegan. Watch it below. Speaking about The Dreamer EP, which saw the band team up once more with producer and The Answer guitarist Paul Mahon, vocalist/bassist Louis Nelson said, “Lyrically, it’s our expression of a drastic change within our lives, and how we dealt with those problems. “It was…

  • Sound of Belfast 2019 Launched

    September 27, 2019 - By 

    The programme for this year’s Sound of Belfast has been launched. Taking across November 1-10 in various Belfast venues, the ten-day celebration of local music was established by Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre to promote and celebrate the musicians, bands, venues, promoters and music communities of Belfast. This year’s programme is its most extensive to date, with over 70 performances set for 18 participating venues. As well as live music from atists including Jordan Adetunji, Kitt Philippa, The Darkling Air, Wynona Bleach (pictured) and more, there will also be various workshops and conferences from the likes of PPL, Musicians Union…

  • EP Stream: Alpha Chrome Yayo – Komorebi

    August 16, 2019 - By 

    Over the last few months, Belfast-based artist and multi-instrumentalist Alpha Chrome Yayo has made a steady, increasingly prolific rise via his interstellar brand of genre-warping synthwave. Today he offers up another – considerably more ruminative – side with his new EP, Komorebi. Titled after the Japanese word referring to the phenomenon of sunbeams filtering through trees, the release – which was influenced by the likes of Terje Rypdal, Vangelis, David Shire and Ryo Fukui – is a masterfully meditative and largely ambient affair from one of the country’s most chameleonic artists. From the balmy twists and turns of its title…

  • Stream: Strength N.I.A – Margaret

    March 8, 2019 - By 

    With their second album set for release post-festival season, Strength N.I.A have returned with their first single of the year, ‘Margaret’. A typically idiosyncratic and bombastic effort from the Derry alt-pop project, the track – which has received support from the likes of BBC 6Music – marries drums and thrift-store organ patterns with bobbing bass and frontman Rory Moore’s vocal refrains. Strength N.I.A play the following dates in May. Friday, May 3: Whelans, Dublin Friday, May 17: Venue TBA, Derry Friday, May 24: Roundy, Cork Margaret by Strength N.I.A

  • Premiere: The Dreads – Know Your Name/Desires

    October 6, 2018 - By 

    In music, good things don’t always come to those who wait. But sometimes, truisms hold weight, and biding one’s time is worth every fidgety, impatient second praying for a release. A perfect case in the point comes in the form of Belfast’s The Dreads. A band whose blend of psych, garage and rock n’ roll has made for some electrifying live shows in the past, they’re back with a new-fangled formation and two tracks that double-up as a statement of intent. Released via Belfast’s Satsumas Home Entertainments, the band’s debut double A-side, ‘Know Your Name’ and ‘Desires’, coalesce over seven…

  • 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…

  • Stream: Robocobra Quartet – You’ll Wade

    April 5, 2018 - By 

    The second single taken from their forthcoming second album, Plays Hard To Get, ‘You’ll Wade’ by Robocobra Quartet finds the Belfast band at the peak of their powers. Culminating in a cry of “Everything is old news” before petering out in a plume of funereal ambience, its recording and composition distils the band’s ongoing, masterfully unconventional approach. Frontman Chris Ryan explains, “During writing it was clear that ‘You’ll Wade’ was meant to have a massive ambience shift half way through the song. To get this we recorded both halves of the song separately with a different sounding drum kit and even a…

  • Stream: New Pagans – Worker’s Song/Ode To None

    January 30, 2017 - By 

    One of our featured acts in 17 For ’17, New Pagans, have just released two new tracks following their debut tunes in September of last year. The band is one of NI music royalty, featuring Girls Names & Cruising‘s Claire Miskimmin, Jetplane Landing, Goons & Fighting With Wire‘s Cahir O’Doherty – whose trademark memorable alt. rock riffing is on display – as well as vocalist Lyndsey McDougall and Conor McAuley on drums. The band have yet to perform live, but by their sound and aesthetic so far – with each song featuring unique artwork from the band – New Pagans forms the bridge teased…

  • Watch: Michael Mormecha – The Opera House

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    Taken from his hugely accomplished debut album LOFi LiFE, ‘The Opera House’ finds Mojo Fury’s Michael Mormecha in especially bombastic form. Featuring mantra-like, burrowing harmonies with Fiona O’Kane of RunawayGO, the track marries fuzzed-out grooves, smatterings of urgent percussion and Mormecha’s uncanny ear for a killer hook. The track’s accompanying video ups the DIY ante in perfectly kaleidoscopic fashion. Delve into LOFi LiFE right here.