• Stream: Robocobra Quartet – ‘Knotweed/Witch Hunt’

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    We were going to post this yesterday but seeing as we featured the band in question in our latest live session – which you can and most certainly should watch here – this evening seems a little more opportune. A rather ingenuous hybrid of spoken-world punk, jazz and hip-hop, Belfast four-piece Robocobra Quartet have just let loose into the world their latest Double A-side: ‘Knotweed/Witch Hunt’. The former – featuring probably second most brilliantly abrupt intro in jazz-centric history – demonstrates the band’s more bold leanings, melting  shifting, shuddering rhythms, expertly atonal bass shapes and braying sax squeals with drummer/vocalist Chris…

  • EP Stream: Silences – Sister Snow

    October 20, 2014 - By 

    Having experiencing a very encouraging 2014, Armagh indie-folk outfit Silences is the harmony-driven, effortlessly impressive brainchild of one Conchúr White. With a voice instantly conjuring two of the band’s biggest influences in Villagers and Death Cab For Cutie, there is an earthly, delicately pastoral allure to their craft; something that is in abundance on their second EP, Sister Snow. Over four wonderfully wistful tracks, the release never strays too far from its source – a distinctly provincial air of yearning, propelled by subtly hypnotic acoustic instrumentalism and White’s breathy meditations upon home, belonging and adulation. The fact that the band manage to set themselves apart…

  • Watch: 7.5 Tonnes of Beard – The Fear

    October 19, 2014 - By 

    Comprised of expertly gruesome artwork by Rich Stuart and live footage of the band performing, Belfast-based sludge metal five-piece 7.5 Tonnes of Beard have unveiled the aptly-accompanying video for their pulverizing new single, ‘The Fear’. Released ahead of a run of Irish dates with Hornets, the band – comprised of Johnny Adger and Rory Friers of And So I Watch You From Afar, Blane Doherty of Gacys Threads, Andrew Coles and Micky Higgins – comprehensively pummel over the track’s six-and-a-bit minutes, conjuring everyone from Eyehategod, Burning Witch, Down and Converge in the process. 7.5 Tonnes of Beard play the following shows over the next…

  • Album premiere: Meb Jon Sol – Southpaw Niños

    October 13, 2014 - By 

    Belfast-based folk singer-songwriter Michael McCullagh AKA Meb Jon Sol has been on something of a far-reaching musical expedition since his Colenso Parade days. A far cry musically from the starry-eyed indie pop of the latter – now defunct – Omagh five-piece, McCullagh’s debut solo album bears the lyrical and thematic imprint of wisdom and experience throughout, each track underpinned by the inner workings of wanderlust or quixotic wondering. Preceded by “yeo!”-generating singles ‘Leave All Your Troubles With Me‘ and ‘Captain of this Ship‘, Southpaw Niños strikes a keen balance between self-reflection and knowingly cavalier abandon, McCullagh’s quasi-mystical, eager tales of the open road and distant…

  • Premiere: Edward F Butler – Running From Fears

    October 7, 2014 - By 

    Originally from London, Belfast-based musician and filmmaker Edward F Butler first made his mark here with the now defunct HOWL, a genre-spanning outfit driven by Butler’s soulful, nigh on beatific vocals. Going several steps further – both in sound and scope – the artist’s debut single, ‘Running From Fears’, is an extremely impressive first gambit, marrying Butler’s idiosyncratic electro-acoustic music with his extraordinary vocals. Conjuring the likes of James Vincent McMorrow, James Blake and Nina Simone, they serve as a transformative centre-piece of a sound bearing the hallmarks of resounding inspiration. And if that wasn’t enough to convince you of his talents, Butler –…

  • Watch: Ciaran Lavery – Orphan

    October 6, 2014 - By 

    Having played a triumphant set at Dublin’s Grand Social as part of Hard Working Class Heroes festival at the weekend, Aghagallon singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery has unveiled the decidedly cathartic video for his new single, ‘Orphan’. Created by ROC, the minimalist visual accompaniment features a few anonymous individuals baring themselves to the camera, a theme introduced in Lavery’s video for ‘Left For America’. Propelled by the Northern Irish songsmith’s instantly-recognisable husky vocals and progressively experimental alt-folk approach, ‘Orphan’ is the closing song on Kosher, Lavery’s latest EP. Stream/buy that here. Watch the video for ‘Orphan’ below.

  • Watch: The Wood Burning Savages – Boom

    September 29, 2014 - By 

    The follow-up to their breakthrough single, ‘America’, Derry quartet The Wood Burning Savages have only gone and released a video for ‘Boom’ – and what an skilfully urgent effort it is. Shot and edited by Fiachra O’Longain at Derry’s Playhouse, the video nicely mirrors the song’s lyrical content, not least via black-and-white archive footage of the Troubles. The song itself is a surging, Motorik-driven live favourite, and the title track of the band’s forthcoming EP, also released today. Stream Boom in full and watch the video for the single below. Boom EP by The Wood Burning Savages  

  • Watch: A Plastic Rose – Move Islands

    September 29, 2014 - By 

    Nottingham-based Northern Irish alt-rock quartet A Plastic Rose have unveiled the brilliantly adventurous, short film-like video for their new single ‘Move Islands’. Shot in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, the video – directed by David Louis Lankester – features the Ian McHugh and Gerry Norman from the band going on a little journey in an attempt to make contact with something both unseen and unknown. Piqued your interest? Watch the video below. ‘Move Islands’ is the fourth single to be taken from the band’s forthcoming new album, Flickering Light of an Inner War, due out in February. The single itself is officially released…

  • Album Stream: Sea Pinks – Dreaming Tracks

    September 29, 2014 - By 

    Nine months in, Neil Brogan’s Sea Pinks have unveiled what could well be contender for our favourite Irish album of 2014: Dreaming Tracks. Going one better than 2012’s superb Freak Waves – a feat in itself – the album conjures brooding, sun-split coastal trawl imminent Autumnal solipsism via ten tracks of cello-lined melancholia and masterfully blithe jangle-pop. According to the band, “This a record about disorientation, ambivalence, and the overlapping of past, present and future that can happen in dream states as well as in waking life.” Dreaming Tracks is available as a Limited Edition Shell Pink 180g 12″ vinyl LP, which can…

  • Premiere: BeeMickSee – We Took a Dive

    September 22, 2014 - By 

    Ahead of its official launch on September 27, we’re happy to present an exclusive first listen of ‘We Took a Dive’ by Belfast-based rapper Brendan Seamus AKA BeeMickSee. Featuring Seamus’ best friend and colloborator Paul Danver, the track – telling the “tale of my harrowing relocation to Belfast in the mid 90s” – will feature on the forthcoming BeeMickSee album, The Belfast Yank. Seamus will launch ‘We Took A Dive’ at Queen’s Student’s Union, Belfast, with a full band in tow, on Saturday, September 27. Support on the night comes from Aggressors BC, The Late Twos, Hot Cops and a Wonder…