• Marcel Dettmann – Fabric 77

    August 27, 2014 - By 

    It’s been a busy year for Marcel Dettmann, a few months on from his inaugural Essential Mix and roughly 12 months after his most recent LP Dettmann II comes his effort in the renowned Fabric mix series. If the mix is anything to go by, the year will only get busier for Dettmann with a lot of the material on the mix forthcoming on his own MDR label. Dettmann is now one of the most recognisable names in techno and with that, there’s little pressure to prove himself. The last couple of years may have seen a resurgence in the…

  • Album stream: Interpol – El Pintor

    August 26, 2014 - By 

    Set for release on September 9, Interpol are streaming their highly-anticipated fifth studio album, El Pintor. You can stream the album in full over at NPR and buy tickets to see the band play Dublin on February 10 and 11 via Ticketmaster here. Missed it? Watch the band’s recent video for ‘All The Rage Back Home’ below.

  • Gigs of the Week: Electric Picnic, Twitch, Sargent House Label Show, Bonnie Prince Billy & Shizz The Fest

    August 26, 2014 - By 

    With the now-sold-out largest music & arts festival in Ireland very much looming before us, it’s a relatively quiet week ahead in terms of gigs, but there are a few of doozies in the coming days scattered across the island. First and foremost: Electric Picnic – Stradbally Estate, Co. Laois; August 29-31 Unfortunately for most, it’s now too late to snap up tickets for Electric Picnic, but for those who wish to see out the Irish summer in style, there’s always one of the most eclectic bills on the circuit. For those who are heading, the Picnic contains some acts of…

  • Electric Picnic reveal Main Stage times

    August 26, 2014 - By 

    With only three days left until this year’s (comprehensively sold-out) installment of the annual Stradbally Estate, Co. Laois festival, Main Stage times have been announced for Electric Picnic. Times have also been announced for the Red Bull Music Academy and Casa Bacardi stages. Check them out them out below. Main Stage Friday 10.45pm-12am: Pet Shop Boys 9pm-10.15pm: Foals 7.15pm-8.15pm: Blondie 6pm-6.45pm: The Strypes 5pm-5.30pm: Tvvins Saturday 12.30am-1.45am: Chic 10.35pm-11.50pm: Portishead 8.45pm-9.55pm: Paolo Nutini 7pm-8.05pm: Bombay Bicycle Club 5.30pm-6.25pm: Hozier 3.45pm-4.45pm: Wild Beasts 2pm-3pm: The Stranglers 12.30pm-1.30pm: Trinity Orchestra Sunday 10.15pm-12am: Outkast 8.30pm-9.45pm: Beck 7pm-8pm: Lily Allen 5.25pm-6.25pm: SimpleMinds 3.50pm-4.50pm: Sinead…

  • Electric Picnic 2014: Seven Must-See Acts

    August 28, 2014 - By 

    Sold out for the second year in a row with good reason, there’s obviously a veritable plethora of talent at Electric Picnic. As a result, it’s never easy to sift through all the bands you may or may not want to catch, so here’s our two cents on some of the acts you should choose to give a few of your minutes to. Slowdive Having reunited in January to play Primavera earlier in the year, Slowdive’s Electric Picnic appearance marks one of a limited number of reunited dates on these isles from the shoegaze masters. They released three albums in their…

  • The Front Bottoms @ QUBSU

    August 25, 2014 - By 

    The Front Bottoms are flying high at the minute, fresh off a support slot in the US with Say Anything and selling out a number of their shows on their current UK tour.  Renowned for bringing the fun with their live shows, stage props and all, and Brian Sella’s deeply personal lyrics doing the heavy-lifting. They have a lot of hype to back up on this show. Although the SU bar is hardly packed for the show the crowd here are ready to enjoy themselves and that alone makes the room feel more crowded. Indeed, It’s immediately clear that The Front Bottoms…

  • First acts announced for Samhain Festival 2014

    August 25, 2014 - By 

    Having sold out last year, Samhain Festival has announced the first few acts set to play its next outing in a couple of months. Taking the stunning Loughcrew Gardens in Co. Meath on Sunday, October 26, the annual showcase will see the final Irish date on Jon Hopkins’ (pictured) Immunity tour, as well as appearances from John Talabot, the fast-rising Maya Jane Coles, Booka Shade (Live) and Detroit veteran Jimmy Edgar. More acts are to be announced. According to the festival, the new location is “shadowed by Sliabh na Caillíagh, the “Witch’s Mountain”, bordered by 300 year old Yew trees, grown to…

  • ‘Est-ce que c’est Chic?’ How NI’s love for Nile Rodgers squares with one Belfast disco oddball

    August 25, 2014 - By 

    I love disco music but I didn’t dance to Chic last Tuesday night. Instead, I watched a YouTube video of (early 80s Belgo-Portugese popstar) Lio’s ‘Sage Comme une Image’ on a disco loop. The music is exotic but fun: a tipsy groove Nile and Bernard would surely dig; Europe via downtown New York and all that. In the vid, Lio applies red lipstick, shimmies, then coyly boozes it up… as some weird dude just kind of hovers.   ‘J’adore cette chanson et le clip est genial.’ ‘Timeless musique!’ ‘Oh those French girls…’ offer some comments. ‘Nice titties’ suggests another, less…

  • Interview: Adebisi Shank

    August 25, 2014 - By 

    With sold-out shows in London and their eagerly-anticipated Irish return on the horizon, Niamh Hegarty speaks to bassist Vinny McCreith of Adebisi Shank about everything from This is the Album… to the brand new, critically-acclaimed This the Third Album of a Band Called Adebisi Shank. So, your third album went on release here in Ireland, UK and US releases to follow this week. How have you been feeling about the reaction so far? It’s really positive so far and thinking back, it makes me think back to the second release and a lot of people have it in their heads that a lot…

  • The Congress

    August 25, 2014 - By 

    As cut-throat a business as Hollywood may be, it’s inevitably a comedown from the horrible intensities of life in a warzone. The visually diverting but meandering The Congress is Ari Folman’s follow-up to 2009’s celebrated Waltz With Bashir, an animated documentary about former soldier Folman’s experiences during the 1982 Israel-Lebanon conflict. The Congress, inspired by Solaris author Stanislaw Lem’s 1971 science fiction novel The Futurological Congress, is an animated/live action blend which riffs on the movie industry’s superficial youth culture and delivers familiar dystopic warnings about society’s obsession with fantastical inoculations against the grim truths of real life. Robin Wright…