• Stream: Pat Dam Smyth – Goodbye Berlin

    August 11, 2017 - By 

    The follow-up to the masterfully mournful ‘Juliette’ – a single relaying the tale of a woman attempting to escape an abusive relationship released back in April – ‘Goodbye Berlin’ by Belfast’s Pat Dam Smyth is a song that tackles “being a kid and disappearing down the rock and roll rabbit hole”. Bounding with the raconteur’s inimitable words of wanderlust and genre-bending brand of incisive indie-folk, it’s a sweet tale that “recalls a time where music had pushed him to the brink, defining his relationship with both his past and his future, and the dominant force that songs have always played in…

  • Stream: Autumns – Female Model/No More Luxury

    July 31, 2017 - By 

    Having first featured the project back in February of 2014, the music of Derry’s Christian Donaghey AKA Autumns has steadily mutated from shoegaze-inflected, willfully acerbic noise rock into a much darker, beat-orientated and industrially-inclined proposition. Following a string of single and EP releases, Donaghey is set to cement that gestation by unveiling his debut album, Suffocating Brothers, via Glasgow imprint Clan Destine Records on September 23. To accompany the new singles, two new tracks ‘Female Model’ and ‘No More Luxury’ are equally emphatic fist-clenched efforts that aim straight for the jugular. Featuring suitably stellar artwork from Belfast artist Claire Miskimmin (also of Girls Names/Cruising/New…

  • Premiere: Ryan Kelly – G.O.N.E.

    July 28, 2017 - By 

    Dublin’s Ryan Kelly set out his singer-songwriter stall earlier this year with the piano-driven ‘City Views’, a track which married his recognisable influences with a refreshingly stripped-back take on youth and becoming. New single ‘G.O.N.E.’ goes one step further. An easy-listening ballad, it is simultaneously an effort that is endearingly simple in its composition and tone, as well as one of that’s unashamedly pop at its very core. Sometimes, that’s more than enough. Have a first look at the beat-up VHSesque visuals for the single below.

  • Stream: Ciaran Lavery – Everything Is Made To Last

    July 28, 2017 - By 

    If you’ve been in any familiar with what we’ve done over the last few years, you’ll know that we have a lot of time for Aghagallon’s Ciaran Lavery. A rare breed of artist who navigates sorrow, wanderlust, love and the borderline mystical hidden spaces that both join and keep us apart, his music comes from a place of a potent grasp of the human condition. Having been zig-zagging around the continent playing shows over the last few months, his new single ‘Everything Is Made To Last’ is a four-minute distillation of what has made all previous efforts so profoundly listenable. Triumphant…

  • Porphyry – Ursa Minor/Coming Home EP

    July 24, 2017 - By 

    Experimental singer-songwriter Porphyry has just released his debut EP, Ursa Minor/Coming Home. Solely performed by Derry multi-instrumentalist Daryl Coyle, it’s an ambitious EP that’s difficult to pin down in genre, with lush arrangements and instrumental flourishes, and truly unpredictable songwriting. Independently released, it was recorded by Start Together’s Niall Doran & Smalltown America’s Caolan Austin, and mixed by Doran. The EP, although could be categorised as baroque pop, or psych-folk, or ambient, or shoegaze or even *gasp* prog rock, it manages the unenviable job of being boldly unpigeonholeable as art, and deeply personal, without approaching any level of bloated grandiosity. Check it out below – we’d…

  • Video Premiere: The Tragedy of Dr. Hannigan – Hey Little Worried One

    July 7, 2017 - By 

    The self-proclaimed bastard child of North Coast musician Tony Wright AKA VerseChorusVerse and producer and multi-instrumentalist Mr Dean Stevens AKA Deany Darko, The Tragedy of Dr Hannigan is a project that has already won acclaim from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Phil Taggart, Radio Ulster’s Ralph McLean and RTE’s Dan Hegarty ahead of schedule. And with good reason. Featuring guest vocals from Stephen Macartney of The Farriers, debut single ‘Hey Little Worried One’ is a ridiculously earworming, quintessentially feel-good effort that is, in its blithe tone and swaggering sway, is much more ditty than song. And – let’s face it –…

  • Premiere: Gnarkats – Something To Say

    July 5, 2017 - By 

    We’ve been closely following & supporting the rise of Belfast-based quartet Gnarkats over the last couple of years. Having proved real contenders via the fuzzed-out alt-rock of their Waves Collide EP back in November, the foursome are back with a stellar new single, ‘Something To Say’. An equally earworming and riff-fuelled effort, have an exclusive first listen to that and learn more about the track – as well as the band’s plans for the rest of ’17. Hi guys, the release comes off the back of last December’s Waves Collide EP. Was it written before or after that release? It…

  • Premiere: Mosmo Strange – L’etrange

    June 25, 2017 - By 

    Having ascended to the higher (and notably more well-attended) ranks of the live scene in the North over the last couple of years, Belfast quartet Mosmo Strange are a band that have always been as much indivisible with the low-end as they are lo-fidelity. A particularly spartan and stripped-back case in point can be found on the band’s new single ‘L’etrange’ – the lead track from their forthcoming Strangetapes release – is an untreated blast of strutting, desert-inflected rock featuring saxophone from Peter Howard of Derry’s Scenery. Have a first listen to the single right below.

  • EP Premiere: RMCK – RMCK

    June 16, 2017 - By 

    Belfast-based booking agent and record label Solid Choice Industries have been knocking it out of the park recently. As well as putting out Witch Hunt, the blistering debut album from hardcore metal quartet Hornets, they have also lined up with shows from Zu, Lemuria, Sunn O))) and the mighty Boris over the next few months. Today we’re pleased to exclusively unveil their latest release, the self-titled debut EP by anonymous artist RMCK. Featuring five tracks of equal parts squalling and meditatively cyclical instrumentalism recorded by Rocky O’Reilly at Belfast’s Start Together Studios, SC’s own blurb on the EP – which…

  • Watch: Malojian – Some New Bones

    June 13, 2017 - By 

    Having released one of the Irish albums of last year in the Steve Albini-produced This Is Nowhere, Stevie Scullion’s Malojian have spent the last while working on its follow-up, the brilliantly-titled Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home. The lead track from that, ‘Some New Bones’ is a spirited return that marries psych-dappled textures and a Motorik groove with swaggering guitar patterns and brief passages of sublime orchestration. Adding another dimension to the release is Colm Laverty’s stellar video, which comprises archive footage from BFI’s digital archive and newly-shot footage from Malojian’s recording sessions at Rathlin East Lighthouse in February. Combined, the…