On their current single ‘Ease Up’, The Astronauts deliver an unashamed love letter to the early 90s. From the moment the main melody hits, the layers of sound tap into a heavy indie/shoegaze sound that’s unmistakeably retro. The tune is also massively appealing, but it’s likely to require three or four listens before this becomes really obvious.
When it comes to reaching for a heartfelt sound, Noah Villeneuve isn’t holding back. His debut solo recording ‘Kneejerk’ begins slowly, presenting his rich vocal tones almost unnacompanied. Bringing in slow, acoustic strums, the melody builds, but clearly aims to draw in the audience gradually. Noah isn’t out to wow people with massive hooks, but to make them…listen – a gift that seems to be fading in this world of short attention spans.
Following a string of rather varied sounding digital singles – kicking off with ‘Spilled Milk’ in September 2024 – one man band Tooth Gore released his long awaited ‘For Losers…By Losers’ album in June 2025. It didn’t disappoint. Taking in elements of surf rock, noisy indie, melodic punk and a couple of other retro twists, the album showcased an artist will a brilliantly malleable talent.
Tipped as “one of Belfast’s fastest rising bands”, Franklin are definitely a band to watch out for over the coming months. Last year’s single ‘Bebby’ introduced a tight music unit with its combination of pumping basslines contrasted with overdriven, choppy guitar lines that captured the ghosts of The Skids and really early U2, crossed with the slightly more abrasive edges of early Franz Ferdinand. The blend of power and melody showcased an amazingly tight band on this track, but by throwing an old school lead guitar break into a pleasingly angular workout also advertised a band who might be unafraid to take a swerve into the unexpected. What’s more, a full live set from Bennigans in Derry (captured with a very professional multi camera set up) showed a band who were far more than studio based marvels.
Sometimes, “lost” tracks are lost for a reason. One in a while, though, a gem will surface from the vaults that has the power to make fans not only sit up and listen, but actually question why such a great recording could’ve been shelved in the first place.
Such is the case with ‘Alive’, a track from the Levellers archive, released as a single as part of the pre-release promotion for a 30th anniversary reissue of the band’s much loved fourth album ‘Zeitgeit’. Huge fans will, of course, recognise ‘Alive’ as having pride of place as part of the bonus tracks on the “special edition” of the Levellers’ 2017 release ‘Notes From The Underground’, but its inclusion on a reissue of a far more celebrated release is guaranteed to introduce it to new ears.