• Women’s Work Festival set for Belfast

    January 14, 2016 - By 

    It’s been revealed that DJ and broadcasting legend Annie Nightingale will kick off the inaugural Women’s Work Festival at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Music Centre on March 4. Set to celebrate great female talent with a series of gigs and showcase events across the five days. It will also provide practical advice, support and spark conversations and debate on the issues surrounding women in music and the wider creative sector. Women’s Work Festival organiser, Charlotte Dryden said: “We want to celebrate great female talent, but also to use the Festival as an opportunity to really talk about and explore a variety of issues…

  • Brilliant Corners To Return in March

    January 13, 2016 - By 

    One of the country’s most reliably consistent and forward-thinking jazz festivals, it’s been announced that Brilliant Corners will return to various venues in Belfast from March 5 to March 12. As expected, the bill for this year’s festival – hosted by Moving on Music – is as delightfully idiosyncratic as expected; Vein Trio will bring Latin Rhythms to the Belfast Parge, recently-passed jazz legend Ornette Coleman will receive due tribute, the synth-soaked free jazz of OKO and Tim Berne will illuminate the Black Box, whilst Dinosaur and Alarmist will team up for what’s set to be a highlight of the festival. Elsewhere, artist-in-residence…

  • Other Voices Live Schedule Revealed

    January 13, 2016 - By 

    Having took place in Dingle across the weekend of December 4-6, the schedule for this year’s Other Voices Live has been revealed. Back for it’s 14th season, the show – a veritable Irish music institution at this point – will return to RTÉ 2 from Saturday, January 23 and will feature Gavin James, Lapsley, Gaz Coombes and Bitch Falcon. This series is presented by Annie Mac, Huw Stephens and Fight Like Apes’ May Kay AKA Mary Kate Geraghty. Check out the full line-up below. Episode 1 / 23rd January Gavin James Lapsley Gaz Coombes IMRO Other Room – Bitch Falcon Episode…

  • Stream: Autumns – The Fall

    January 12, 2016 - By 

    As many of you will know by now, Derry’s Christian Donaghey AKA Autumns isn’t exactly in the business of snappy middle 8s and earworming refrains. Delving further into more experimental and decidedly murkier territory than before, his new track ‘The Fall’ summons the ghost of impoverished Düsseldorf winters and squalid cold water flats, bug-infested floorboards, insurmountable overdue rent and Suicide soundtracking the End on some barely musical engine of ruin. Donaghey said, “Lately I’ve been incredibly inspired and obsessed with transgressive authors and philosophers. This track is influenced just as much by the literature I’m reading than the dark industrial, electronic sound that I hear in my…

  • Toby Kaar Announces Debut EP Release Date, Streams New Track ‘SnapDragon’

    January 12, 2016 - By 

    The above photo of Cork producer Toby Kaar couldn’t be further representative of our reaction when we discovered today he’s set to released his debut EP, the interestingly-titled via Dublin imprint Music Is For Losers on March 18. Having been weaving some magisterial electronic sounds for the last few years, the news will be very happily-received from Kaar, who also released the spiralling ‘SnapDragon’ from the release today. Speaking about the release, Kaar said, “The EP was made on a 9 year old computer, which has started to pack in. A lot of the samples were things I found in libraries, pretty basic…

  • Watch: New Solar Bears Album Trailer

    January 12, 2016 - By 

    Having had the head down over the last while, Dublin electronic duo John Kowalski and Rian Trench AKA Solar Bears have unveiled a trailer for their hugely anticipated third album, Advancement. Set for release via Rob Da Bank’s Sunday Best Recordings in March 18, the album – which took a year to make – was recorded in various locations and, according to the label, “[emphasises] the sonic quality of different spaces, plus incorporating and manipulating indigenous instruments to “[mirror] the widespread decay of the natural world.” Sounds pretty sweet, eh? Peer further behind the veil via the album trailer below. Photo by Dorje De Burgh

  • Watch: Gascan Ruckus – Bitter Victories

    January 12, 2016 - By 

    The Middletown boys in Gascan Ruckus are at it again, with the video for the second, semi-titular single from their forthcoming long-awaited debut album, Narrow Defeats and Bitter Victories. Never concerned with taking themselves more seriously than is necessary, it comes complete with an Uncle Hugo-friendly countrified intro. It’s noticably more hook-driven than past efforts, but still channelling some of the contemporary anthemic post-hardcore in the vein of Dinosaur Pile-Up or Basement that they’ve been plying in recent years. The video was recorded by Belfast Yank BeeMickSee and Axis Of’s Niall Lawlor, with their latest album recorded by Ben McAuley at Start Together Studios. You can…

  • Stream: exmagician – Job Done

    January 8, 2016 - By 

    If there’s one Irish album we’re nigh on pant-wettingly excited for this year it’s Scan The Blue by Belfast’s exmagician. A titular (and slight member) shift from the embers of Cashier No. 9, the project has had us quietly agog since the release of their debut EP Kiss That Wealth Goodbye via Bella Union in November. A perfectly crafted, psych-laced alt-pop gem, the band’s new single ‘Job Done’ distils Danny Todd and James Smith’s prismatic mastery to four all-too-fleeting minutes. As you might have guessed, we’re big fans. WordPress code More options

  • Video Premiere: Bosco Ramos – SNKSWM

    January 8, 2016 - By 

    Previously called GIRL, experimental Belfast duo Bosco Ramos are just one of a number of acts in the city making some first-rate fervent noise at the minute. Recorded with R51’s Jonny Woods at Start Together studio in late 2015, the pair’s seismic new single ‘SNKSWM (Sink Swim)’ – their first official release – is accompanied by a video courtesy of Niall Lawlor and Brendan Seamus. Have an exclusive first look at that below.

  • Stream: Little Green Cars – The Song They Play Every Night

    January 7, 2016 - By 

    Laced with pathos in all the right places, ‘The Song They Play Every Night’ is the wonderful lead single from Dublin five-piece Little Green Cars‘ second album, Ephemera. Swooning, brittle and impossibly earnest, the track – driven by Stevie Appleby’s exquisite, whole-hearted delivered – taps into the all often unspoken world of loss and recovery. Top drawer. Ephemera will be released on March 11.