ALTHOUGH Noise Annoys favourites Seven Summits haven't been active for a while now, thankfully the Belfast indie outfit's frontman and chief songwriter Rory Nellis is now well on his way to becoming established as a solo artist in his own right.
You might remember that his excellent festive offering Midwinter Festival was the official Noise Annoys Christmas Anthem 2016: since then, Rory has been treating listeners to a steady trickle of tantalising new material culled from his forthcoming debut LP, amusingly titled There Are Enough Songs In The World.
The latest tune for our consideration is a wonderfully melodic, wistfully melancholic number called Crossed Out, a piano and finger-picked acoustic guitar-based ode to fresh starts featuring some witty lyrical references to the joys of malfunctioning modern tech.
"Scrap it and start again, reformatting's useful when an edit won't do it, and everyone loves an empty page – crossed out, re-start over again," croons Nellis on an earwormy tune which puts me in mind of Heliopause's stylistically similar oeuvre.
As regular readers will know, that is high praise indeed. Other ears have heard echoes of top Scots troubadour King Creosote, fine company for Mr Nellis to be mentioned in the same breath as.
There Are Enough Songs In The World isn't out until November, but you can hear Crossed Out right now on Spotify or at Soundcloud.com/rorynellis, along with the other 'teaser' tracks Casual Discrimination, Rory's catchy, ukulele-powered rumination on bigotry, Born For Rainy Weather's pretty piano-tinged reminder to be nice to your fellow man, and the amusing and anthemic commentary on the songwriter's uphill battle for success that is the title track itself.
If you like the sound of that, you can see Rory performing live tonight in Belfast at Indigo Coffee & Gelato on Stranmillis Road along with Philip Watts d'Alton and John McGurgan.
Doors are at 8pm, it's £10 in and you can BYO – but you might not need top as apparently there will be Buckfast sorbet on offer. Mmm.
Another local solo artist with new product on offer is Ciaran Lavery, who has recorded a special EP of Will Oldham covers for release on Record Store Day tomorrow.
A King At Night is a five track affair on 10" vinyl and, of the couple I've heard – Palace Music standard New Partner and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy number Bad Man – it's the Aghagallon man's stark, fiddle and hand-clap enhanced take on the latter tune which is the keeper.
Decide for yourself at Soundcloud.com/ciaran-lavery, then try to track down the actual record tomorrow at your favourite indie record shop.
Finally for this week, don't forget that tonight sees Derry's New Pagans making their long-awaited Belfast debut at The Empire.
Lyndsey, Cahir, Conor and Claire will be headlining a bill which also includes Via Barvikha, the new project from ex-Pigs As People noisemaker Chris Leckey which finds him ploughing a rootsier and more pointedly melodic musical furrow (check out Chris Ryan from the forthcoming Chengdu EP at Soundcloud.com/abbreviatedrecords) and Brand New Friend man Taylor Johnson's 'bedroom indiepop' orientated side project The Crying Scene (listen to their Stylophone-tastic tune Monica Geller now at Cryingscene.bandcamp.com).
New Pagans have also recently announced their first London gig on May 12 as part of the Frank Turner-curated Lost Evenings festival at The Roundhouse in Camden – clearly, Cahir has now amassed enough dirt on Mr T while working as his sideman to ensure a lifetime of support slots.
Just kidding: the four songs this alt-rocking quartet have released to date would be enough to make anyone sit up and take notice: Belfast heads can look forward to hearing Workers Song, Lily Yeats, I Could Die and Ode to None done live tonight alongside whatever else New Pagans have been busy cooking up in their rehearsal room over the past six months.
Refresh your memory at Newpagans.bandcamp.com and be aware that doors open at 8.30pm.
Admission? Yours for £7.
