Swimming Tapes debut album, ‘Morningside’, opens with the dreamy ‘Passing Ships’. The track envelopes the spirit of lazy summer love, filled with warm tones and a solid beat that allows room to catch the drift of the poetic lyrics. Catchy…
Pop punk is a funny old genre. It’s been bastardised by so many awful bands that it’s easy to forget just how invigorating it was first time around. The best bands of the genre write (or wrote) songs that were…
Limavady hardcore merchants Axecatcher make a bold, defiant musical statement with their fourth EP release ‘Second Hand Grief’. Appearances at high-profile festivals such as Stendhal and Monsters of Rot are small reminders of how hard this band works to make…
In 2015 Ryan McGroarty and Cheylene Murphy formed Beauty Sleep, joining up with Aimee Williamson and releasing first single ‘The Dark’ the following year. A reworked version of that very first single opens up their own debut album Be Kind….
Dandelion Tea return on their newest EP, remaining as elusive as ever. A band known for actively avoiding genre specifications like the plague, their newest releases can go from artsy pop to indie rock to gritty and dark in the…
In his infamous speech at the 2014 Brit Awards, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner took it upon himself to fight the corner for rock n’ roll, dropping the mic as he proclaimed that although “it seems like it’s faded away…
I’ve always naturally drifted towards people with drive. The guys, girls and everything in between who “want it.” Whatever “it” is doesn’t particularly matter, but the “want” is paramount. The people who have a restless drive to get up and…
I remember sitting with some friends in the summer of 2013 talking about the music that was amazing us at the time. I started talking about Joshua Burnside’s newly released Single “Black Dog Sin”. I thought it was lyrically compelling…
Belfast quartet Valium’s long-awaited debut EP, This Feeling’s a Wave, is a euphonic fusion of rock and funk, that bleeds with psychedelia and a bit of blues. Sounds like a lot to fit into six songs, but they manage it,…
There are a couple of words you can’t use to describe yourself for fear of looking like a spanner. ‘Gorgeous’ is the most mainstream one. ‘Leader’ is also probably in the top three along with ‘stylish.’ Luckily for one third…
‘Start a band, when everyone’s starting a family’ This is perhaps the most important lyric across ‘Cheers, Sound, Good Luck’s ten tales of hope, self-belief and honesty. It comes from a songwriter who even if he hasn’t quite seen it all yet,…
When I watch documentaries about a band or read an article about their beginning, I always get a bit jealous. What an experience, to have been around as Blur started their ascent, or to have been in the crowd when…
Following on from their debut EP ‘The Blue’ in 2018, Many A Son‘s latest EP offering of ‘The White‘ has recently been released, further showcasing the distinctive talents of this acoustic duo. The EP itself was recently launched at Arcadia…
The ‘singer/songwriter’ tag carries so many negative connotations currently. By listening, you play a game of Russian roulette – will you get another chart topping copycat, an unsentimental and listless love song, the latest open mic night ‘sensation’? Luckily for…
Having burst onto the scene in 2017 with the alluring debut single ‘Dancing In The Debris’, Belfast singer-songwriter May Rosa is back to confidently make her mark as an alt-pop sensation with ‘Waxwork Sweethearts’. Since we last heard from her,…