Northern Ireland Tunes - Round-up #19

Sometimes, getting new music from Northern Ireland can be like waiting for a bus. You wait ages for one to come, then you decide that you're done waiting and decide instead to walk home, enjoying the scenery and happy that you were able to get some exercise in.

Whoops. That's not it. I'll start again.

Sometimes, getting new music from Northern Ireland can be like waiting for a bus. You think that there's nothing worth waiting for coming, and then all of a sudden you're inundated with so many buses that it's not possible to board them all, so you have to make the decision of which bus to take and which ones to ignore, and hope that those bus drivers don't feel heartbroken that you decided not to go with them.

Actually, on second thoughts, getting new music from here is absolutely nothing like getting a bus. I honestly don't know why I tried to make that comparison.

Nonetheless, here's a few new tunes from Northern Ireland which have been floating The Metaphorical Boat so far this month. None of them are about buses:
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Sullivan and Gold - Lonely

Local record label Smalltown America is perhaps best known for releasing music very much on the heavier side of the rock spectrum. Having been formed to release material from Jetplane Landing, the label has put our records by artists like Lafaro, More Than Conquerors and Axis of. However, more recently the label seems to have signed a few artists on the softer, more folksier end of the musical spectrum. Earlier this year they signed the wonderful Little Bear (who, if there is justice in this world, will be absolutely massive in 2014), and later this year they will be releasing "For Foes", the debut album from Derry duo Sullivan and Gold.

Taken from that album, which will be released on November 25th, is the lovely single "Lonely". The song has great harmony vocals, and is made even more notable by containing a piano line that in places seems more in keeping with a house track than a song of the folksy variety.

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Paper Man - The Only Sea for Miles and Miles

Ballyclare four-piece Paper Man released their debut E.P "After Effects" this week. Taken from the E.P is "The Only Sea For Miles and Miles", a track which seems to have been tailor made for the Kerrang! Radio playlist, given that their angsty sound calls to mind the bands such as Feeder & You Me At Six. Whether or not their music director takes to their music like a duck takes to water remains to be seen.


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Cordials - Head in the Clouds

Ooh, Britpop-y sounds from the Portrush/Coleraine area? Cordials, you have made me a very satisfied captain indeed. "Head in the Clouds" is an upbeat sounding guitar-pop tune which Supergrass would be more than happy to put their name towards. And being such nice fellows, the band have made that track, alongside their self-titled E.P, free to download.


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PigsAsPeople - The Art of Leaving Your House

When a band list as their influences acts whom I have never heard of, it normally means that they are purveyors of genres that I have no real deep knowledge of, either sludgy doom-y metal-y music or jazz. Pigsaspeople claim that their new E.P, "Idles & Us", was inspired by artists such as Converge, Slint & Touche Amore, and I gather from those names that the band aren't likely to be going off into 7 minute saxophone solos in the middle of their sets. Or are they? Find out at The Speakeasy, Belfast on 24th October, where they will be launching the E.P alongside El Ten Eleven and Droids. But for now, listen to "The Art of Leaving Your House", and embrace the riff.