Saturday 16 November 2013

Northern Ireland Tunes - Round-up #20

So have we all enjoyed this year's Belfast Music Week? I very much hope so. There was some great events that we really enjoyed this year. The Northern Ireland Music Prize, the Belfast Music Week Showcase (which I didn't enjoy as much as last year despite some enjoyable performances, unfortunately), and the opportunity to see the fantastic Public Service Broadcasting live for the second time (and it was great to see local band Yes Cadets, whom we've written about in the past, supporting them. They seem to have completely changed their line-up and sound since the last time we saw them, but they still sound fantastic. Expect to hear more from them on this blog in the near future). But as is usually the case, there's just so much music, and so little time. Here's a few songs from NI that have been floating The Metaphorical Boat. Some old, some new, and some in between:
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Mojo Fury - Origami Bird

One of the most respected bands on the local scene, Mojo Fury, are about to launch their second album "The Difference Between", a record which has been funded by their fans via a PledgeMusic campaign. Based on the album's latest single "Origami Bird", a song which has picked up a great amount of local airplay, as well as seemingly being played over the PA of every event during Belfast Music Week, they were worth every single penny. Alternative heavy rock at its finest.


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Cashier No.9 - Moonbeam Song

In 2011 psych-rockers Cashier No.9 released their much awaiting debut album "To The Death Of Fun", a wonderful album which ranks among the best albums from here from the last few years (although ashamedly, due to an oversight on our part it didn't feature in our own countdown of albums in 2011. If we repeated the list now, they would have easily taken the #1 spot. Sorry, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart). They recently announced that their follow-up album is due to be released in 2014, and to whet our appetite, they have recorded a few covers of their favourite songs. The first release is "Moonbeam Song", a cover of American singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson.


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Seven Summits - Little Twist

With two albums and countless local gigs under their belt, it seems rather surprising that this blog had not seen Seven Summits live until they took part in the Belfast Music Week Showcase on Thursday. And it's fair to say that they were very impressive, and not at all like I expected them to be. For some reason I'd got it into my head they were a bunch Mumford-esque banjo botherers, and thankfully my expectations were confounded. They closed with brand new single "Little Twist", a song inspired by one of the members fracturing their fibula. It's a fine slice of alternative-rock, one which may give this blog reason to reassess its opinion of the band for the better.


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Skymas - This River

And to close this month off we have Skymas, an electronic-rock trio based in Belfast. They recently released their debut two track E.P (or as it was called in the old days, a 'double A-side'), and taken from it is "This River", an LCD Soundsystem inspired song with a hypnotic base line.

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