• Across The Line at 30 @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

    August 31, 2016 - By 

    Long a bastion of promoting the very best in Irish music, North and South, weekly BBC Radio Ulster programme Across The Line will celebrate its 30th birthday in style with a special live show at Belfast’s Ulster Hall. As well as featuring interviews with many of the acts, The Divine Comedy, SOAK, Therapy?, Villagers (acoustic), R51 and Saint Sister will all perform on the night. Current ATL co-presenter Rigsy said “Rigsy says: “I was practically reared on ATL, with Mike Edgar introducing me to so much amazing Irish music throughout the 90s. So, it’s a real privilege to be presenting…

  • Premiere: Scenery – Howlin’

    August 25, 2016 - By 

    Early days though it is, Derry’s Scenery have already established themselves on the live front as an act that won’t likely be slotted into a neat box any time soon. With a sound confidently traversing progressively-minded rock, soul, jazz and blues, the Stephen Whiteman-fronted band’s debut single ‘Howlin” is a feverish effort weaving wanton sax and vocals over a creeping chord progression that burrows deep. For a band proudly wearing throwback sounds on their collective sleeve, it’s a first gambit that edges into forward-looking, decidedly urgent territory. Taken from their debut EP, Far Out, exclusively stream ‘Howlin” – and check out forthcoming Scenery…

  • Girls Names Announce Remix EP, stream ‘Zero Triptych’ (Mikey Young Remix)

    August 24, 2016 - By 

    Ahead of a new string of live dates that sees them zig-zag around European from the end of August to early October, Girls Names have announced Revisionism, an EP of remixes featuring the likes of Total Control’s Mikey Young, Broken English Club, Shift Work, Group Zero and The Horrors’ Tom Furse. The first track to be lifted from the release, Young’s re-workin of the band’s 2016 single ‘Zero Triptych’ is a blissed-out effort that re-frames frontman Cathal Cully’s words in a new guise. Revisionism is set for release via Tough Love on September 16. Check out forthcoming Girls Names dates, the artwork for Revisionism and…

  • Premiere: Son of the Hound – I.O.U

    August 23, 2016 - By 

    Not one to rest easy on one particular sound or approach, it’s safe to say there are many strings to Michael McCullagh AKA Son of the Hound’s proverbial bow. From his days as guitarist in Colenso Parade right through to his outfit in his previous musical nom de plume Meb Jon Sol, the Omagh musician is back with yet another change of direction in the form of 60s influenced indie rock n’ roll single ‘I.O.U’. Speaking to TTA, McCullagh said: “I.O.U was recorded in Milbank studios, with Mike Mormecha doubling up on drum and recording duties. It was recorded live initially and then cleaned…

  • Inbound: Franklyn

    July 30, 2016 - By 

    It seems like a case of twice bitten, thrice wise for Frankyln’s Owen Strathern. After initially finding some success with Magherafelt mods The Tides, Strathern’s growing indifference to the lad rock pedalled by his school friends lead to the bassist joining forces with his brother Enda and Tides newbie Stephen Leacock to explore poppier territories. General Fiasco, including Enda on guitar and Leacock on drums, seemed destined for big things: the band’s pop punk melodies, paired with Owen’s deceptively vulnerable lyrics, drew the attention of the British indie press, and the success of early singles ‘Sometime Sometime’ and ‘Ever So…

  • 10 Years of CF Records

    July 29, 2016 - By 

    Sea Pinks‘ main man and CF Records founder Neil Brogan reflects upon 10  years of the Belfast-based independent record label. Ten years ago I was living in London and at something of a loose end. In my boredom I thought it might be fun to start up a label. This was in the distant era of Myspace supremacy. It seems quaint to think of it now but it was the first time DIY bands and labels from all over the place started to connect online and for a brief moment it felt kind of liberating. I was excessively shy about my…

  • Video Premiere: Alana Henderson – Song About a Song

    June 14, 2016 - By 

    Before setting off on the very long road as cellist/backing vocalist for Hozier, Dungannon singer-songwriter Alana Henderson (one of our ones to watch last year) had staked her very own captivating claim with her debut EP, Wax & Wane. Released in early 2013, it was veritable pandora’s box of burrowing folk noir, each of the release’s four traditional-tinged chamber tales bounding forth with gallant imagination and delicate, melodic finesse. With brand new material in the pipeline, ‘Song About a Song’ – a perfectly ruminating peak from Wax & Wane that’s had an incredible 5,000,000 plays on Spotify – has been resurrected with a homespun video by David Moody that wonderfully captures the song’s essence.

  • Stream: Arborist – A Man of My Age

    June 7, 2016 - By 

    Fronted by Mark McCambridge, Belfast’s Arborist are masters of the subtly-wielded phrase and burrowing melody. A year on from having the one and only Kim Deal feature on their single ‘Twisted Arrow’, the band have returned with ‘A Man of My Age’, a pleasantly reflective six-minute effort brilliantly bolstered by shivering strings and a layered Americana folk ambience that rewards with repeated listens. With fading youth, familial change and growing perspective at the heart of the McCambridge’s words here, we’re treated to something rather special; a carefully considered meditation imbued with a calm sense of acceptance that seals the deal in fine fashion. Stream the single…

  • Watch: Slomatics – Electric Breath

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    Not merely one of the best heavy bands in Ireland, Slomatics are undoubtedly right up there with the finest harbingers of brain-bendingly, bone-crushingly hefty sludge-doom anywhere on the face of the planet. With their perfectly-honed live show at its razor-sharp best and a new studio album, Future Echo Returns, set for release via Black Box Records in September, the three-piece have re-emerged with a typically obliterating new track ‘Electric Breath’. The sonic equivalent of self-exorcism in slow-motion, it trounces in a way and with such clinically resounding execution that Slomatics and few others like them can muster. Created by Dermot Faloon,…

  • Ciaran Lavery – Let Bad In

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    With his rumpled suit, rural back-story, and battered guitar, not to mention the genre-hopping back catalogue and considerable streaming success it appears to be so far, so peak-beard for Ciaran Lavery. On his second full-length album Let Bad In, the Aghagallon singer-songwriter seamlessly welds together hip-hop beats, chamber balladry and soulful pop across ten addictively melodic tracks that demand repeated plays. This genre-hopping could sound calculating and impersonal but the album is more than held together by that glorious voice. Lavery’s enunciated delivery on album highlight ‘Return to Form’ transforms into a soulful rasp by the time the chorus comes round. This…