• Inbound: Ex-Isles

    October 31, 2018 - By 

    Last month, Belfast duo James Joys and Pete Devlin AKA Ex-Isles released one of the strongest debuts from an Irish act in recent memory. Masterfully nuanced and politically-minded, the expansive chamber pop of Luxury Mass conjured everyone from John Grant and Scott Walker, to David Sylvian and ANOHNI, all while introducing a project mustering its very own magic. With the pair currently working on the follow-up to Luxury Mass, and a busy 2019 forecast, James Joys talks to us about their “dark swoon”, impetus, collaboration, literary and musical influence, and crafting music that explores our growing alienation from agency over our own lives under capitalism. Ex-Isles…

  • The Specials Announce Dublin Return

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    2-Tone heroes The Specials have announced their return to Dublin next year. Having last played the city back in 2014, the Coventry band will play Olympia Theatre on April 11th. The show is part of the band’s 40th anniversary tour, and coincides with the release of a new album, Encore – the band’s first new music in 37 years. Tickets go on sale on Friday, November 2 at 9am.

  • The Thin Air’s Alternative Halloween Playlist

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    We’ve all been there: the Halloween soiree is well under away and ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ is on its third outing in two hours. As much as you totally nailed that leg solo the second time ’round, there’s a burning – nay, practically murderous – need for new tunes to see in Samhain in style. Pre-empt that happening all over again by taking advantage of our seventy-five track alternative Halloween Spotify playlist, featuring everyone from John Maus, Broadcast and The Cramps to Flying Lotus, Suicide and Tangerine Dream.

  • Massive Attack Set For Mezzanine XXI 2019 Show in Dublin

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    Bristol trip-hop legends Massive Attack will stop off in Dublin next as part of a tour celebrating their seminal 1998 album, Mezzanine. Promising a “totally new audio/visual production” the show at Dublin’s 3Arena on Sunday, February 24 will also feature Elizabeth Fraser, the Cocteau Twins singer who lent her vocals to the album’s second single ‘Teardrop’. The show will re-imagine Mezzanine via “custom audio reconstructed from the original samples and influences”, and is described by Robert Del Naja AKA 3D as “a one off piece of work; our own personalised nostalgia nightmare head trip”. Tickets are priced €49.50 and go on sale…

  • Mac DeMarco @ Limelight 1, Belfast

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    Why does 28-year-old Mac DeMarco command so much reverence from so many younger fans, right across the world? It’s a question as old as time (or, well, circa 2013), and yet, a definitive answer is still outstanding. Sure, there’s the midpoint he strikes between authenticity and unconcern. There’s the albums and countless live shows that veer between inward-gazing, heart-stung, silly and fun as all fuck (and who, juvenile or flirting with the grave, can’t get behind that?) Then there’s the tattered baseball cap and rollies chic, which is every bit as dominant as a love of the harmonic twists and turns that…

  • Video Premiere: DJ Nervou$ x Post Punk Podge – Never Coming Home

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    Note: content contains themes of domestic violence. Two of Ireland’s most exciting independent prospects have teamed up for new single ‘Never Coming Home’ to raise funds for Limerick’s ADAPT House, which helps families suffering domestic abuse. Following on from homelessness charity single ‘Home Is Where The Heart Bleeds’, Post Punk Podge is posited once more as the conscience of modern Ireland, backed by claustrophobic beats from Just Mustard guitarist/vocalist David Noonan, aka DJ Nervou$. Factoring toxic masculinity, substance abuse and mental health into its weighty fable, the vitriol of its final refrain will leave you like you’ve just blitzed through The Butcher Boy, staring into nothingness, as Podge manages to decry perpetrators of domestic…

  • Lisa O’Neill – Heard a Long Gone Song

    October 27, 2018 - By 

    Given Lisa O’Neill’s rising star in recent years, it’s surprising she hasn’t been snapped up by a bigger label sooner, with previous work being either self released or issued through The Frames’ Plateau Records. Having toured extensively over the last few years with the likes of Glen Hansard, James Yorkston and The Divine Comedy though, it seems pretty natural that at last the Cavan songwriter should follow fellow Irish folk luminaries Lankum onto the eminent Rough Trade label, or more accurately, Rough Trade’s brand new folk imprint River Lea, for album four. Where previous records, particularly 2013’s Same Cloth or…

  • Bohemian Rhapsody

    October 26, 2018 - By 

    Queen’s music is like the air. So if you’re going to give them the biopic treatment, you need to peel back the gloss and the familiarity a little, and give us a peek at the complications, the darkness and the extravagance of an icon like Freddie Mercury. Their tracks have been drilled into the DNA of modern background noise: for Bohemian Rhapsody to feel in any way fresh, it needed risk. It has none. The product of a difficult gestation, Rhapsody arrives after cycling through leads, screenwriters and directors. Bryan Singer gets the sole director credit, but he was fired…