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Ramona Has A Pulse– Love Song I And Thou
‘Love Song I And Thou’ is a track by Ramona Has A Pulse, the music-making nom de plume of young Northern Irish multi-instrumentalist Tiarna Armstrong. With a debut EP in the work, her homemade, debut single ‘Love Song I And Thou’ fuses shoegaze-y guitar, primitive drum machine rhythms and hazy vocals. While it’s still very much early days for the singer-songwriter, there is a lot on offer here to suggest interesting and potentially great things to come. Watch this space.
Gently, Not So Gently – Grim, Always
With an aim “to blur the lines between soft folk lullabies and angry punk anthems” The Anchor and the Wake is the debut collaborate EP by Adam Shirlow and Richard Gray AKA Gently, Not So Gently. Recorded by Jason Gibson of Linebacker Dirge, the release also features additional musicianship by both Gibson and drummer/percussionist Grace Leacock of Vanilla Gloom (formerly of Stereo War Favourites with Shirlow). Underpinned by a yearning, passionate vocal delivery by both members – not to mention a subtly charging acoustic style – opening track ‘Grim, Always’ is a fleeting but memorable taste of the both The Anchor and the Wake and the what the future holds in store.
Idiot Songs– Nastasya’s Tears
Melding braying electronic beats with graceful guitar and violin, ‘Nastasya’s Tears’ is a single by Pearse McGloughlin and Justin Grounds AKA Idiot Songs, brilliant singer-songwriters in their own right (the former hailing from Co. Sligo, the latter an Englishman who recorded his most recent album in Clonakilty, Co. Cork). Taking from the duo’s new full-length, self-titled release – a concept album borne from a mutual love of the literary works of Dostoyevsky, composed and constructed via Dropbox – ‘Nastasya’s Tears’ is a beautifully executed, impressively constructed track instantly calling to mind the likes of Villagers, Death Cab For Cutie and – another Ben Gibbard project – The Postal Service.
