• Widows

    November 7, 2018 - By 

    The arc of the heist movie builds towards triumph and liberation. The thrill of a pulling off the perfect job is the same as performing a magic trick. There’s the plan, even if it’s discarded when things get hairy, and there’s a chance for a losers and rogues to get one back on the system, an impossible now-you-see-it that leaves coppers in an empty vault scratching their heads, stray notes bobbing in the breeze. A well-structured heist movie is one of cinema’s high pleasures. “Pleasure” is not a feeling that Steve McQueen’s work brings to mind: think Fassbender’s cum face…

  • If I Couldn’t Define it, I Thought I Was Doing Something Good: Introducing Son Zept

    November 7, 2018 - By 

    A couple of weeks ago, we premiered Son Zept‘s 40-minute debut EP, released through Belfast experimental electronic imprint Resist. Ahead of it, we met with Liam McCartan to discuss his involvement in Belfast’s Sonic Arts Research Centre – where he’s currently composing for a PhD – and Resist, where he’s been instrumental in its growth from club night to label, alongside founders Koichi Samuels & Helena Hamilton – where in terms of enabling his prolificity, “it’s a constant dialogue – we already have a 2 or 3 EPs idea”. Being staunchly individual, but instrinsically linked to both institutions, the Q2B EP strikes a midpoint between the bodies he’s most involved with and McCartan…

  • Milo – Budding Ornithologists Are Weary Of Tired Analogies

    November 7, 2018 - By 

    Milo’s raps are that of internal monologues, paradoxical truths and caustic wit. His flow ricochets around the rap cosmos — choppy to smooth, elliptical to gratifyingly loquacious — before fate slots it away in pockets of dream-like production that is heavily indebted to jazz’s freest, most nakedly emotive, compulsions. Scallops Hotel, his side project and producer alias, is low stakes in the best possible understanding of the phrase. A sublime January release earlier this year, sovereign nose of (y​)​our arrogant face, marked newfound terrain for Ferreira through sheer uniformity in pace and a flow that is becoming increasingly screwed into…

  • The Prodigy – No Tourists

    November 6, 2018 - By 

    What does The Prodigy mean in 2018? More than 21 years after The Fat of the Land and Music For The Jilted Generation, this is a band who for many years pushed the limits of taste and aggression for mainstream dance music. Consider tracks like ‘Firestarter’, ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ and ‘Poison’ which are still intensely antagonistic and hostile. But after nearly three decades in the business and a comfortable position within collective consciousness, what in the holy hell can be done next? Look at our contemporary popular hip-hop and dance charts and you’ll find a much darker world than what…

  • Other Voices Dingle Set For Return

    November 5, 2018 - By 

    Other Voices Dingle will return across November 30-December 2. With new partner Hennessy on board for the Other Voices Music Trail, the annual showcase will return to its home in Kerry for another weekend of music, story and song. Following the success of Other Voices Ballina in late September, the flagship event will return with over 100 gigs and talks taking place over three days. With more to be announced, on the trail this year is Irish/french dream-pop band A Ritual Sea, Derry’s Eoin O’Callaghan AKA Elma Orkestra, Galway maestro Daithí, TTA favourites Just Mustard, Trick Mist, Wastefellow and Silverbacks, Galway native Grainne…

  • Parquet Courts @ The Academy, Dublin

    November 5, 2018 - By 

    In the giddy days leading up to Parquet Courts‘ sold-out Academy show, social media was strewn with desperate pleas aimed squarely at the #ticketfairy. It came as no big surprise. Riding high off the back of their sixth – and easily most accessible album to date – Wide Awake!, the Brooklyn indie rock heroes are, without question, at their all-time most happening right now. Take a well-earned bow, the marketing team at Rough Trade. Capped at a cosy 850, the heaving Dublin venue tonight buzzes like a glorified in-store, relocated to what could feasibly be some neony student union of the early 2000s (that the room is promptly transformed into…

  • Metropolis 2018

    November 3, 2018 - By 

    The Saturday of this year’s Metropolis, featuring Villagers, Gwenno, Booka Brass, Friendly Fires, David O’Doherty and David Keenan. Photos by Mark Earley.

  • Album Stream: Conor Mason – On The Surface

    November 3, 2018 - By 

    As October gives way to the dark, nippy evenings of November and beyond, most of us will find ourselves turning to music – old favourites and new discoveries both – that double up as soundtracks to the seasonal transition. For some, this will(and, as we see it, absolutely should) include the extraordinary new album from Derry’s Conor Mason. Six years on from his second album, Standstill, On The Surface finds the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist at the peak of his powers in the realm of carefully-crafted, and beautifully wistful alt-pop.  From the sublime harmonic arc and flow singles ‘Follow’ and ‘On The Surface’,…

  • Johnny Marr @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

    November 3, 2018 - By 

    “Sorry, I forget to say shit in between songs. Oh yeah, politics. Fucking great, right? Don’t worry. This is a safe politics-free zone for tonight. I’m allowed to take the piss, though…” 34 years on from gracing its hallowed walls with the Smiths, Johnny Marr is mid-way through a generation-blurring set at Belfast’s iconic Ulster Hall. He’s one day into his 55th year, and with his recently-released third solo album, Call The Comet, marking a new creative resurgence, he’s twice the character and poise of that 21-year-old back in 1984. Kickstarting a new European tour, tonight bridges three eras into one seamless celebratory whole…