• Watch: No Spill Blood – El Duurto (Live)

    Hands down Dublin’s most intriguing and enthralling dystopia-evoking trio, No Spill Blood have released a live video of their performing the aptly-titled ‘El Duurto’. In typical NSB fashion, it’s furious and frantic, where doom and space-rock merge in a heady battle of the wills. The video – full of claustrophobic close-shots – was shot and edited by Neil Hoare in Dublin. ‘El Duurto’ will feature on the band’s forthcoming Sargent House-released debut album, Heavy Electricity.

  • Tour Diary: Ciaran Lavery in Kansas

    Head of Belfast-based imprints Champion Sound and Quiet Arch, Lyndon Stephens reports back from Northern Irish singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery’s recent industry festival jaunt in Kansas Thursday Accompanied by yours truly, Ciaran Lavery flew to Folk Alliance festival in Kansas City, Missouri last week four days of intense industry showcase gigs. Famous for Dorothy, Toto, Union Station, The Liberty Memorial, BBQ and as the State where the Civil War started, Kansas hosts this industry event with a difference. Everything takes place over four days in two interconnected hotels. Labels, management companies, agents, magazines and government agencies rent rooms or suites (depending…

  • PALS: The Irish at Gallipoli @ National Museum of Ireland, Dublin

    A bleak Irish sky backdrops the frigid Collin’s Barracks, former military stronghold turned national museum turned proscenium for ANU Productions’ breathtaking new performance PALS.  Born out of the financial collapse in 2009, ANU (pronounced “anew”) has boldly challenged Irish theatre to tackle Irish issues in visceral ways, turning its site-specific method of performance into a niche, accessible, and affordable outlet for the Dublin theatre-going public. ANU’s total-immersion style of theatre forces audiences not only to witness a story, but to experience its place as an integral element of the narrative.  2012’s Boys of Foley Street revived a time and place…

  • BeeMickSee – The Belfast Yank

    Portland-born, Belfast-raised rapper BeeMickSee releases his long-awaited, aptly-titled debut album The Belfast Yank globally on March 16.  Some of the tracks have been made available through previous EPs & singles, available to check out on Bandcamp. With the question hanging over the album of: “What do you do when your parents move you from the hipster mecca that is Portland Oregon to the urban jungle that is post-ceasefire Belfast?”, the former punk-hop Bomb City 7 alumnus Brendan Seamus eschews the usual misogynist hip-hop patter – instead favouring lyrics chartering the experience of relocation in an unfamiliar, often uncivilised society, cross-Atlantic cultural parallels, strained relationships and bullying. Recorded in Start…