• Watch: Arborist – Dreaming In Another Language

    January 19, 2023 - By 

    With his 2016 debut album, Home Burial, Mark McCambridge aka Arborist underscored his arrival as one of the island’s most singular considered songwriting voices. Four years later, A Northern View – which was Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios – doubled down on his sublimely-crafted indie Americana. In the between, McCambridge has had his head down, plotting a release worthy of continuing a story that has already sprawled out magnificent. The result is An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros, a nine-track album that we’re sure will elevate Arborist far and beyond. Produced by Matthew E White at his Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virginia, it sees the Belfast artist explore…

  • Premiere: No Spill Blood – Anvil Crawler

    December 9, 2022 - By 

    Very few bands do obliteration quite like No Spill Blood. Over the last ten years, the Dublin trio of Ror Conaty, Matt Hedigan and Ruadhan O’Meara have delivered cyclical heft, cut from its very own cosmic cloth. Eight years after releasing one of the most emphatic Irish albums of 2015, Heavy Electricity, the Kraut-metal three-piece are back with news of its eagerly-anticipated follow-up, Eye of Night. Set for release via Finnish imprint Svart on 24th February 2023, the ten-track album is, we are told, a “series of inward folding tales of a protagonist’s journey within the self. An exploration of the…

  • Video Premiere: Meljoann – Secrets

    October 27, 2022 - By 

    Avant-pop sensation and all round TTA favourite Meljoann is back with another creative self directed and produced video for ‘Secrets’, the second release in a succession of singles. The video features an all too familiar setting of a 90’s style day time talk show with a whole host of Mel-tiverse characters that fans of her ongoing Mustics clips would surely recognise. Speaking about the video, Meljoann said: “Using the magic of reality TV editing to my advantage, I made it look like my Talk Show debut was a triumph. When in fact, it was the most embarrassing experience of my entire life” Have a first look below!

  • Premiere: The Model Home – Thinking Much

    October 13, 2022 - By 

    The Model Home is a musical project bringing together two respected figures of the Northern Irish music scene: Fionn Crossan of Kilgour and Caolán Austin, a Derry-based musician who also helms production duties at Smalltown America. Over the last few years, the duo have been creatively conspiring on the down-low, steadily piecing together material that they are now, blessedly, beginning to offer to the world. First up is debut single, ‘Thinking Much’. Penned in 2020, and bearing the imprint of artists like Elliott Smith and Fionn Regan, it’s a finely-woven indie folk gem marrying guitar, bass and vocals from the pair, as…

  • Video Premiere: Waldorf & Cannon – Cut Loose

    September 16, 2022 - By 

    Few Irish acts have carved out a niche as distinctive as Waldorf & Cannon. Comprising Philip Wallace and Oisin Cannon, the Derry/Donegal duo’s alternative multi-instrumentalism has proven equal parts emphatic and earworming on singles including ‘Omit The Logic’ and ‘We Are Your Government’. New single ‘Cut Loose’ ups the ante and then some. Doubling up as the duo’s finest most potent single effort to date, the song explores the perils of 21st-century living and prescription medication addiction across four minutes. Produced and recorded by Wallace – or Waldorf – in his Co. Donegal studio earlier this year, it features additional guitar from…

  • Video Premiere: Drew Makes Noise – Secret To Life

    July 5, 2022 - By 

    Over the last couple of years, Andrew Wilson, aka Drew Makes Noise, has re-emerged as a serious contender. Formerly one-quarter of NI indie rock maestros Ed Zealous, the Belfast-based artist has been carving out a wonderfully idiosyncratic – not to mention purposefully DIY – niche via singles including ‘Your Garden Grows’ and last year’s ‘Baby Blue’. It’s a trajectory that’s in full swing on new single ‘Secret To Life’. A masterfully unravelling effort, with some sublime production work to boot, it distils the widescreen finesse of Drew’s craft in under three minutes. Speaking about the track, he said: “I wrote…

  • Video Premiere: Invaderband – Cheese Slices

    June 20, 2022 - By 

    If you were fortunate enough to catch Invaderband in Belfast or their hometown of Derry at the weekend, you’ll be well aware that they’re a band well and truly at the peak of their powers. Fronted by Adam Leonard, the band are masters at writing clever and considered art-rock, yet never at the expense of a lack of vanity that continues to set them apart. This resistance to kneejerk pretension, in a realm so casually fraught with it, is mirrored in their new single ‘Cheese Slices’. Having won the approval of various BBC 6 Music broadcasters among others, the single…

  • Premiere: YARD – Lawmaker

    May 18, 2022 - By 

    Myriad acts earmarked as “ones to watch” have, by virtue of any number of factors – both real and imaginary – have ceased to exist since time immemorial. Such is the way of the music industry; that cripplingly fickle clusterfuck of a fever dream that many of us, for one reason or another, dedicate a sizable portion of our lives to with little to no recompense, fiscal, metaphysical, or otherwise. And frankly, we wouldn’t have it any other way, for it’s more or less all in the pursuit. Which conveniently brings us to YARD, a Dublin quartet kneeling (and very well at that) at the altar…

  • Premiere: Naoise Roo – Almost Perfect (Live)

    May 6, 2022 - By 

    Last month, Naoise Roo unveiled an expanded version of her sublime 2015 debut album Lilith. Featuring five bonus tracks remixed by John Agnello and Jerome Froese, it brought into sharp focus the Dublin artist’s enduring singular talents as a vocalist and songwriter. Having just been announced to play this year’s Latitude Festival, all while making her mark Stateside, Naoise looks set for a seismic few months. Ahead of that, we’re pleased to present a first look at a new live video of inward-peering Lilith highlight ‘Almost Perfect’. One part of a longer live video due for release later in the year, the performance…

  • Premiere: I Am The Main Character – GOLD (I Die at the End)

    April 19, 2022 - By 

    “Man is the microcosm: I am my world.” Wittgenstein knew the craic when he penned these words back in 1916. A few moons later, Dublin’s premier (only?) “solipsism-core” band I Am The Main Character have taken the essence of the inward-peering avowal in question to its natural conclusion on ‘GOLD (I Die At The End)’. Smudging the lines between thrash-hop, mutant pop, trap and post-punk (no, not that kind) it’s a masterfully mangled effort from the supergroup of sorts. Influenced by the likes of Gilla Band, Lightning Bolt, and The Knife, they’re made up of Dublin DJ/producer Ben McKenna (Ben Bix, Meltybrains?, Sim Simma), Jay McNamara (TTA…