Belfast’s Deeply Armed have been making subterranean waves for a few years now, with tracks being passed around serious heads via various samizdat channels. Andrew Weatherall was an early booster. David Holmes dropped an incredible psychedelic remix that was played out live on specific ritual occasions: Convenanza, God’s Waiting Room, Manifesto of Bliss.

The trio finally broke cover in 2025 with a genre-defying three-track 12” that combined deep soul with Krautrock grooves and a rock and roll heart, followed by a radically re-tooled take on the track by Richard Fearless, available on limited edition vinyl.

Deeply Armed feature Michael McKeown on vocals, guitar, synth and percussion, Aaron O’Neill on electronics, synth and engineering and Kenny Whaley on bass and synth. Coming together on Belfast’s underground club scene, the trio have birthed a unique hybrid sound, long worked-over, a sound that combines analogue garage band smarts with a blissed-out Balearic feel and a commitment to extending endless grooves way over the event horizon. Think Neu! tripping on a Northern Soul loop with Sonic Boom setting the controls for the heart of the sun. 

The group are committed to recording live in analogue to capture spontaneous magic, likening the process to such unlikely totems as The Everly Brothers. It’s actually an inspired comparison, tracking the loose country-soul vibe that adds to the slow-burning euphoria and affirmative yea-saying of “The Healing”, with a sound that goes down just as well in the heart of the dancefloor as it does between the cans of your headphones. Drummer Saul Rayson and vocalist Marion Jordan complete the live line-up, with a classically trained mezzo soprano fronting the kind of depth-charge percussive assault of avant-garage lynchpins like Can and This Heat. 2025 has seen sold out shows with David Holmes and Mad Professor with further actions planned at key locations: Manifesto of Bliss in Glasgow and The Golden Lion in Todmorden while they ended the year with “The Healing” appearing on Picadilly Records of Manchester’s legendary year end best-of compilation. 

They haven’t been long in attracting fellow travellers. Andrew Innes of Primal Scream and Brendan Lynch remixed “The Healing” on a wild trash-glam “Born to Go” mix that was pure electro-punk, while Keith Tenniswood brought the lover’s trance to his reimagining of “The Healing” as a Terry Riley-esque all-night flight. Already lined up are future collaborations with Andrew Fearn of Sleaford Mods and Mad Professor. 

Deeply Armed announce themselves as a singular presence on the fringes of electronic underground sound, hallucinating the kind of phantom dancefloor moves that would reconcile the dub version, the loop and the live jam with the kind of audacious pop élan of a dream Phil Spector/Dennis Bovell/Conny Plank mega mix.

At times like these we could all do with a little healing, and Deeply Armed are the ones to bring it. Look out for their eponymous debut LP in 2026 as well as more radical re-versions drawn from the trio’s endlessly deep take on eternal pop tones and radical positivity.

Words: David Keenan

Image: Simon Murphy