• Premiere: Franklyn – Pleasure

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    Even if you’ve only had a passing interest in Northern Irish music™ over the last few years there’s a strong chance you’ll already be somewhat acquainted with Belfast quartet Franklyn. Three-quarters of the sadly departed General Fiasco, the Owen Strathern-fronted outfit recently re-animated in style with single ‘We Don’t Want To Live’, an emphatic debut track “about people having the life beaten out of them, feeling like there is nothing you can do to change, losing your fight and not even being that bothered about it.” An equally assured effort clocking in at under three minutes, new track ‘Pleasure’ effortlessly underlines the Belfast band’s mission to write a…

  • Stream: Participant – Leave Me Here

    March 25, 2016 - By 

    Last October we were very impressed by ‘A Change’ by Dublin-based musician Stephen Tiernan AKA Participant. Smitten by the track’s “curious, otherworld charm”, our verdict could well be – and is, in fact – equally applicable to his new single, ‘Leave Me Here’, a wonderfully nuanced effort traversing more brooding, inward-looking territory for the artist. An sublime outtake from his November, 2015 EP Content, Tiernan said, “[Its] lyrical ideas had served as the blueprint for Content for a long time. A fear of progress and happiness, the idea that you might need to struggle as an artist. I shouldn’t have been surprised when…

  • Stream: Ryan Vail – Mirrors

    March 25, 2016 - By 

    Having successfully completed a pledge campaign to ensure the release of his forthcoming debut album, For Every Silence, Derry musician Ryan Vail is streaming one of its highlights, ‘Mirrors’. An all-too-brief, electro-ambient effort recalling the Jon Hopkins at his most reticent, balmy beats and broad washes of synth entangle over the track’s three odd minutes, acting as a bed upon Vail’s spoken omnipresence firmly takes centre-stage. You can still pre-order For Every Silence via Vail’s pledge page here.

  • Stream: Deadman’s Ghost – Insula

    March 11, 2016 - By 

    Previously known as Deadman, Belfast producer Jason Mills AKA Deadman’s Ghost comfortably established himself as one of the country’s most ambitious and idiosyncratic musicians with his debut LP, The Broken Zoetrope. Drawing comparisons to the likes of Beck and David Holmes, it tapped into a magnificent mid-point between expansive post-rock terrain and exquisite electronic soundscapes. Very much a return worth waiting for, his new track ‘Insula’ instantly lured us to a realm in which Beak> and Tortoise got together to jam ‘All I Need’ by Radiohead. The result was delightful.

  • Stream: Silences – There’s a Wolf

    March 11, 2016 - By 

    “Quite a touching song in its sheer bare-boned simplicity and sound. Great track – potentially brilliant artist.” So your writer scribed three years ago this June in reference to an early version of ‘There’s a Wolf’ by Co. Armagh’s Conchúr White AKA Silences. Having came on many leaps and bounds since that tentative first foray in 2013, White and his band have released a reworking of the track, revealing deft harmonies, wonderfully subtle pockets of sound and fleshed-out, full-band instrumentation that more than justifies the revamp. Silences’ forthcoming EP Luna will be released on April 15 will be released on April 15.

  • Stream: Carriages – Like a Child

    March 9, 2016 - By 

    The third release from the pair, ‘Like a Child’ by Dublin’s Harry Bookless and Aaron Page AKA Carriages started as a percussion loop recorded using flower pots and a garden sweeping brush. A curious birth betraying the twosome’s wonderfully idiosyncratic leanings, the final product is a slick slice of minimalist electronica in which repetition (not least in the song’s chorus of “Like a child I run to you”) comfortably tunnels in one’s auditory cortex. Released on March 23 – and followed a week later with a remix by Bantum – stream ‘Like a Child’ via Soundcloud below.

  • Watch: Orchid Collective – Lay As Stone

    March 8, 2016 - By 

    When we shared the track two weeks ago we said ‘Lay As Stone’ by Dublin quartet Orchid Collective was “unwinding alt-folk meditation on weariness and reprieve that sees wonderfully-woven harmonies come to the fore across the track’s nigh on four minutes”. Having zig-zagged around the country playing shows in the time since, the band have released a video for the single directed by Cill Farrell, the moral of which we’ve deduced is: it’s often – if not always – advisable to drink a few glasses of milk before going on the rip. Orchid Collective launch ‘Lay As Stone’ at Dublin’s…

  • Album Stream: J Cowhie – Veil

    March 8, 2016 - By 

    Early days though it is, after just a handful of listens Veil by J Cowhie is right up there with our favourite Irish albums of the year so far. Formerly known as GOODTIME/Goodtime John, the Malmö-based, Dublin “alternative electronic experimental folk” singer-songwriter very much trades in the currency of the mystery of memory, the throes of time and the curious laws of belonging, his hushed tales – each as slow-burning, incisive and revelatory as the next – framed in a phantasmal hue of sublime, ruminating ambience. An album about loss, change and the “responsibilities that come to us all in our lives whether we…

  • Stream: Solar Bears – Gravity Calling

    March 2, 2016 - By 

    This time last month we were rather giddily raving about Solar Bears‘ ‘Wild Flowers’, a track we said seen the Dublin duo “as prismatic and sorcerous as ever”. Very much following in that vein, ‘Gravity Calling’ is the latest track to be streamed from their forthcoming third album, Advancement, which drops via Sunday Best Recordings on March 18. Inducing yet another neon-lit netherworld of lambent retro-futurism, it’s a superbly synth-driven, soundtrack-like four minutes of flawless mastery from the twosome. Solar Bears play Belfast’s Lavery’s on Friday, March 18. Pre-order Advancement here.

  • Stream: Extra Fox – Lunar Float

    February 26, 2016 - By 

    Having premiered his subtly euphoric single ‘Palm of Gold’ back in November (stream it here) Dublin’s Neil Adams AKA Extra Fox has returned with nigh on onomatopoeic new track, ‘Lunar Float’. A drifting, typically synth-driven effort full of mellow restraint, it induces a netherworld of loose, burrowing oblivion over three and a half minutes. Stream/download ‘Lunar Float’ via Soundcloud below.