• I, Banquo @ Lyric Theatre, Belfast

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    Written by Tim Crouch, I, Banquo is a retelling of Macbeth from the perspective of his dead friend Banquo. As the play begins the ghost of the titular character rises from the floor and tells us his version of events, from the fateful meeting with the three sisters to the gruesome finale. Banquo addresses us as Macbeth and asks us to question our own motives and desires along with the other characters in the play and leaves us wondering if perhaps we’ve misunderstood. Directed by Oisin Kearney and performed by Michael Patrick, the pair take a low-budget approach and use…

  • Visual Arts Outlook (22/4)

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    The week ahead is looking full already, writes Mary Stevens. Various events are happening outside of the gallery walls including a performance by Stuart Brisley as part of his exhibition Headwinds at The MAC Belfast on Thursday night. A Breath Crystal (Exhibition) Project Arts Centre, Dublin April 24 – May 30 This group show at Project Arts Centre curated by Mihnea Mircan from Extra City Kunsthal opens on Thursday night at 6pm. Artists Jean-Luc Moulène, Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan, Katerina Undo, Miklos Onucsan, Tom Nicholson, Phillip Warnell, Jonas Staal, Fabio Mauri, Jacqueline Mesmaeker and Lawrence Abu Hamdan represent the…

  • All Genres Weird & Wonderful: Vaporwave

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    In the first installment of a new feature, All Genres Weird & Wonderful, Kelly Doherty scours the world’s sub-genres so that you can sound informed at hipster dinner parties with minimal effort. Name: Vaporwave Origins: Unsurprisingly, the internet. Stemming a little bit from the Seapunk movement but very much with its own identity. How to use it in a sentence: “My kid brother asked mom to get the old Windows 95 computer out of the garage because it’s on point with his aesthetic. I think he’s turning vaporwave…” Sounds like: Oneohtrix Point Never, Washed Out, Animal Collective Vaporwave is many…

  • Blur Retrospective: Leisure (1991)

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    Examining the runt of a band’s musical litter is a never fun. Looking at this small, misshapen thing and comparing it to its stronger, better formed siblings, you almost develop a strange affection for it; a kind of pity. The perpetual adolescence nature of them, acne ridden and still trying to discover what they are and who they could be. Sometimes these little creatures contain more depth and warmth than their cooler, better developed counterparts. Other times they are the like visiting a social media ghost town and seeing all those images and ideas that you were so proud of…

  • Watch: Sleep Thieves – You Want The Night

    April 21, 2015 - By 

    A masterclass in woozy, nocturnal electro-pop, You Want The Night by Dublin three-piece Sleep Thieves is easily one of our favourite debut albums by an Irish band in… well, forever. A year on from its release, the Sorcha Brennan-fronted band have unveiled the video for its title (and arguably best track) ‘You Want The Night’ – and what a distance director Mike P. Nelson has gone to wonderfully, rather cinematically capture the song’s dark, marauding tangents.

  • Life Festival

    April 22, 2015 - By 

    Now in its tenth year, the Life Festival takes place at Mullingar’s Belvedere House & Gardens on the weekend of May 29-31. Headlining is hip-hop icon NAS, performing his out-and-out masterpiece, Illmatic. Also on the bill are the likes of: Squarepusher, Siriusmodeselektor, Eats Everything, The Underachievers, a live set from Gold Panda, Ben Klock, Jurassic 5’s Nu-Mark, Optimo, Sunil Sharpe, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Pantha Du Prince, Skream, Ten Walls, Ratking, Derrick Carter, The Magician, Maceo Plex, Kölsch, Robert Hood, Alle Farben, Oneman, Luke Vibert, Jasper James, High Contrast, Ben UFO, Ame, and many more. Tickets, priced at €145, are available from the Life Festival.

  • I Am Belfast

    April 21, 2015 - By 

    The movies were like magic carpets, Mark Cousins tells us about his younger days, introducing Festival opener I Am Belfast at the Moviehouse Dublin Road. The film itself is a kind of magic carpet ride through the city, with Cousins as the excitable genie, showing us not a whole new world, but the same one, viewed from unexpected angles. Belfast, tilted. We begin in the clouds, coming down on the city from above, Cousins bringing his film-making eye to his hometown after a career spent Out There. Cut to a stained mountain face, raw and prehistoric, its reflection stretching outward in a pool…

  • Good Name: Krautrock Night @ The Bernard Shaw, Dublin

    April 21, 2015 - By 

    What do you get when you get when you round up members of this country’s most forward-thinking bands and put them on the stage together playing Krautrock style together? Something more than a bit different is what. On Thursday, April 23 at Dublin’s Bernard Shaw, see members of Girl Band and Meltybrains? jamming in a scene they’re huge fans of but is very far from their norm. Good Name DJ’s will be spinning on the night. Starts at 8pm; free entry.

  • Oliver Jeffers: Words & Pictures @ Liberty Hall, Dublin

    April 24, 2015 - By 

    Raised in Northern Ireland, New York-based Australian artist, illustrator and writer Oliver Jeffers is a jack of all trades, master of many. His picture books – including Lost & Found, Stuck, The Hueys and more – have been translated into over 30 languages, his distinctive paintings have been exhibited throughout the world and he won an Emmy in 2010 for his collobarative work with Mac Premo. Taking place as part of International Literary Festival Dublin 2015, Oliver Jeffers – Words & Pictures will take place at Liberty Hall on Tuesday, May 19 at 6.30pm. Tickets are priced at €8/€5 and are…

  • Villagers – Darling Arithmetic

    April 21, 2015 - By 

    Villagers has always been something of a vehicle for Conor O’Briens creative vision. Early on as a band it enabled him to explore the rich soundscapes we heard on Becoming A Jackal; the arrangements were complex, brooding and gave more than a tip of the cap to Nick Drake’s darkest days and recordings, but was most certainly foregrounded with O’Brien’s soloist vernacular. {Awayland} had a different, but no less focused modus operandi, with O’Brien and co. expanding a sound that ultimately felt like a more colourful, collaborative experience. Now on album number three, Villagers’ Darling Arithmetic goes beyond a back…