Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Supersonic youth
it’s the unknown quantity – vocalist Lyndsey Mcdougall – who steals the show. Her lyrics are curious (an example – ‘Lily Yeats’ tells the tale of one embroiders contribution to the Celtic revival), her voice dynamic and her stage presence huge. We’ve missed dormant pop punk trio Axis Of, who are now spread around the world. So vocalist Ewen Friars’ solo project – a sort of souped up, vaguely electronic version of what we got from that band, was welcomed with open arms. ‘OKA’ is an absolute belter – as is the ridiculously simple video, during which those of us with a hint of OCD are tortured by images of one man’s failed attempt to – amongst other things – put a plug into a socket. Oddly, the video makes a salient point but you’ll have to go watch to find out what it is… fronts with his sister Lauren – are gradually gathering an army of fans. The other half is that they’re properly awesome, both on record and onstage. Straight up jangly indie-pop with huge choruses and just enough quirky-ness to stand out, needless to say they knocked it out of the park earlier this year at the Radio 1 ‘One Big Weekend’ in Hull – the evidence is online.
Despite being from the North (Gemma’s from Derry, Morgan’s from Belfast) Saint Sister were always going to do a little better in the South. For whatever reason, their brand of pretty folktronica is lapped up by the average music loving Dub more so than back home. So it was no big surprise that they stuffed the National Concert Hall and had the cache to invite local legend Lisa Hannigan onstage for a live collaboration.
The Belfast based five piece have been making a sumptuous racket for a couple of years now, the songs and their confidence growing with each increasingly splendid release. Recent single ‘Heavy Friends’ is huge, a glorious wall of riffola battling with Melyssa Shannon’s epic vocal take. It’s a song big enough for Russia – with the band set for a 10 dead headline tour stretching from Moscow to western Siberia and covering almost 80,000 miles.
Few would have put money on Stiff Little Fingers being the first band to sell out at Custom House Square next month, during a run of gigs that’s essentially a rebranded version of the original Belsonic Festival. But the Northern Irish punk kingpins have done so ahead of the likes of Kasabian, Emile Sande, Ocean Colour Scene et all. ‘Putting the Fast in Belfast for 40 Years’ reads the tagline and The Stranglers, The Ruts DC, The Outcasts and Terri Hooley will help make the show this years definitive celebration of punk on this island – if not on this planet. Another teen who’s made a good job of taking over the last couple of years is Portadown native Naomi Hamilton, who released a beautifully wonky debut album ‘Parma Violets’ in 2016. Two things became clear the last few months – that she’s only getting started and that there’s probably no end to her talents. A new single ‘Mrs Dalloway’ is her best creation yet and – in an odd move – she now hosts a hypnotic poetry podcast
(search Poembite).