• Watch: Rachael Boyd – Esoteric Path (Live)

    November 19, 2015 - By 

    Released in tandem with the single itself, Belfast contemporary/electronic musician Rachael Boyd has unveiled a live video of her performing ‘Esoteric Path’, a wonderfully woven post-classical mesh of piano, strings and enveloping rhythmic patterns. Written, performed and produced entirely by Boyd, it’s yet another brilliantly arranged and becalming effort from the artist, who last caught our attention back in February with live, four-track release Recordings.  As well as the studio and live video versions of the track, Belfast-based producer James Bruce AKA OAKS has also offered up an impressive remix of the track. Stream it along with the original and watch the…

  • Stream: Saint Sister – Castles

    November 3, 2015 - By 

    “My mother is lonely/My father speaks only to himself  My sister’s in danger/Her lover’s a stranger.” Undoubtedly the jewel in their lulling folk-pop crown, there’s a real immediacy poise to the lyrics of Irish Gemma Doherty and Morgan MacIntyre AKA Saint Sister. With their debut EP, Madrid, set for release via Trout Records on Friday, November 13, their latest single ‘Castles’ confines that intimate, instantly relatable savoir faire to four minutes of gossamer-like song, relaying succinct, unspoken truths of – perhaps unmistakably Irish – family life. Recorded in a short, purportedly “intense” session at Noise studio, Co. Kerry by Alex Ryan of Hozier, Madrid…

  • Watch: Therapy? – Deathstimate

    October 22, 2015 - By 

    From the halcyon days of ‘Perversonality’, ‘Screamager’, ‘Femtex’ and ‘Brainsaw’, Therapy? have always been good for a lurid titular portmanteau. The latest in that hallowed tradition is their new single, ‘Deathstimate’, which serves as a triumphant, seven-minute closer to their fourteenth studio album, Disquiet. Set for official release on October 30, an abridged version of the single has been released with a suitably heavy video by Sitcom Soldiers. Therapy? play Infernal Love anniversary shows at Dublin’s The Button Factory on December 10/11 and Belfast’s Limelight on December 12. Watch the video for the ‘Deathstimate’ below (and go here to stream the full, seven-minute, Sabbath…

  • Stream: Sea Pinks – Depth of Field

    October 19, 2015 - By 

    Just over a year on from the release of the stellar Dreaming Tracks, Belfast threesome Sea Pinks have re-emerged with new single, ‘Depth of Field’. Yet another masterfully sanguine slice of melancholia from the Neil Brogan-fronted band, the track – relating ambivalence and doubt in ways they mastered many moons ago – is the first taste of what to expect from their forthcoming new album, Soft Days, which is set for release in January via CF Records.

  • Stream: Defcon – Reach Out

    October 16, 2015 - By 

    Released via London’s Kinnego records, Belfast producer Connor Dougan AKA Defcon has woven some real magic on his new, three-track EP, Reach Out. According to his Bandcamp page, Dougan has “taken the lesser-travelled route of low-key experimentation and refinement, and has arrived at something unique, informed by leftfield hiphop and crate-digging, but also modern dub trickery and bass weight.” Check out our review of the EP in the October issue of our magazine online here. Reach Out by Defcon

  • Stream: Pleasure Beach – Dreamer to the Dawn

    October 15, 2015 - By 

    Forming from the ashes of Yes Cadets, ‘Dreamer to the Dawn’ by Belfast five-piece Pleasure Beach bears the urgent hallmarks of the likes of overlords Arcade Fire, The National and The War on Drugs. The follow-up to their very well-received debut single ‘Go’ (which we featured here) the band’s new single is a streamlined slice of zealous electro-pop. If Springsteen snuck into Beach House’s studio circa the recording of Teen Dream and magic came to pass, this would surely resemble the result. ‘Dreamer to The Dawn’ is taken from the band’s debut EP of the same name, which will be released via…

  • Stream: Documenta – Chiaroscuro

    October 7, 2015 - By 

    Having delivered a suitably (inter)stellar performance supporting Girls Names at their album launch in Belfast last week, drone pop septet Documenta are streaming a new track from their forthcoming second album, Drone Pop #1. A drifting, subtle dance of burrowing psych-pop, ‘Chiaroscuro’ is the Joe Greene-fronted outfit’s implicit manifesto distilled to five minutes of Kosmiche-soaked, two chord concrète groove. Drone Pop #1 – recorded by Ben McAuley at Belfast’s Start Together Studios – will be released via Touch Sensitive records on Friday, November 13. Pre-order it here.

  • Premiere: Empty Lungs – ‘Medicine/Bernadette’

    October 2, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of launching it at Belfast’s Empire Music Hall on Wednesday, October 7, we’re pleased to present an exclusive first listen to the new double A-side from Belfast alt-punk band Empty Lungs. Tracked by Andy Coles, ‘Medicine/Bernadette’ – was mixed by Chris Ryan and mastered by Dan Coutant in New York – captures the Kev Jones-fronted quartet at their emphatic best. See below for the band’s upcoming tour dates and our premiere of the release. The online sales from Bernadette will be donated to womenonweb.org.

  • Stream: Edward F Butler feat. Katharine Philippa – Futures Full

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of premiering its (really quite brilliant) video tomorrow, we highly recommend taking five minutes out of your evening to stream ‘Futures Full’, the new single by Edward F Butler featuring Katharine Philippa. Easily two of Northern Ireland’s more idiosyncratic musicians over the last couple of years, a collaboration between the pair should come as little surprise to anyone who has kept up with their respective journeys to date. Having both featured in Oh Yeah Centre’s Scratch My Progress programme (NB: Butler in his previous outfit HOWL) ‘Futures Full – “a song about relationships, purpose and identity – melds the very best…

  • Watch: Runaway Go – Lover to Lover

    September 22, 2015 - By 

    Belfast indie-pop duo Fiona O’Kane and David Jackson AKA Runaway Go have long earned their stripes as one of the country’s finest purveyors of the genre. With their boundlessly compatible vocal styles, the pair’s music has always burst forth with a vitality and joie de vivre that’s never wanting in the realms of pathos and perspective. With their debut album, Alive, set for release in November, the duo have went down the PledgeMusic route with the aim to secure its release. In the meantime, they’ve given us a taste of what to expect from the record in the form of ‘Lover to Lover’, a wonderfully…