• Indiependence Announces Line-up

    Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, the Michelstown-based festival Indiependence announced its lineup yesterday evening. The festival – taking place on the August bank holiday weekend –  draws in bigger names this year, with Public Enemy (above), White Lies and Tom Odell all headlining. Further down the lineup you get the likes of Irish stars Delorentos, Damian Dempsey and Sultans Of Ping, along with upcoming talent Darling, Chloe Howl and The Academic. Tickets are a very reasonably priced €99 and are on sale now.

  • Rick Ross – Mastermind

    Rick Ross’s sixth album Mastermind arrives to little ceremony. Throughout its promotion the usual rattle and hum of the internet hype machine has remained eerily silent for an artist considered to be among rap’s elite. Ross has always sold buckets of records and his fourth album Teflon Don – released in 2010 – granted him large scale critical acceptance that legitimised his ascendancy to hip-hop’s head table. But the past couple of years have stifled a career rise that once seemed so unstoppable. The Miami native’s recent misdeeds include some unfortunate lyrics that attracted accusations of condoning date rape, the termination of his…

  • Interview: Solar Bears

    Ahead of their Thin Air show at Belfast’s Voodoo this Saturday night (March 22), Brian Coney talks to John Kowalski from Dublin electronic duo Solar Bears about the evolution of their sound, the imprint of cinema on their music-making and how things are going in the process of piecing together album number three. Hi John. You’re currently in the process of making your third album. How have things been progressing over the last couple of months? Really good thanks. We are deviating a lot and making sure we are covering new ground, which is our preference. At the moment there…