• Something Positive, Something Sincere: An Interview with Wooden Shjips

    September 6, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of shows at Belfast Empire Music Hall (Sept 17th) and Dublin’s Whelan’s (Sept 18th) Ripley Johnson of San Francisco psych alchemists Wooden Shjips talks to Cathal McBride about songwriting process, positivity and playing to “up for it” Irish audiences. It’s been a full five years since the last Wooden Shjips record. What made 2018 the right time for a return? Well, it was 2017 that we reconvened to make the record. Hard to say why, really. For me, I just got the urge to work with the guys again so proposed a simple plan for making it. The plan was…

  • The Nun

    September 7, 2018 - By 

    A creaky convent horror in desperate need of absolution, The Nun is the latest in Warner Brothers’ credibility-stretching attempts to hoover up audience good will for The Conjuring.  Over two central films the franchise has become an accidental financial juggernaut for WB, its relatively straightforward scares crafted with confident professionalism by director James Wan, who has an eye for tension, and boosted by the amiable chemistry of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as betrothed Ghostbusters Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Conjuring 2 was especially solid, distinguished by an 1980s red brick terrace atmosphere. Its weakest moments were when it went full…

  • The Murder Capital Announce Irish Tour

    September 6, 2018 - By 

    Fast-rising Dublin band The Murder Capital have announced details of a two-part Irish tour across November and December. The James McGovern-fronted five-piece – who impressed at various Irish festivals this summer including Electric Picnic – will play Galway, Limerick, Cork, Belfast and Derry. Check out full dates below.

  • Watch: O Emperor – Girl

    September 6, 2018 - By 

    Having re-emerged back in January with their first single in two years, ‘Make It Rain’, Waterford five-piece O Emperor have just gone one better and released one of our Irish tracks of the year in the form of ‘Girl’. Featuring some first-rate dreamscape-like visuals courtesy of director Paul Savage, it marries doo-wop croon and psych-tinged dream-pop textures with slack hip-hop influence.  Ahead of full details about the band’s forthcoming new album, due this year, delve in below.

  • Stream: Documenta – The Blue Sleep

    September 6, 2018 - By 

    We recently snuck a sneak peek of the forthcoming new EP from Belfast’s drone-pop septet Documenta and let it be known: we’re in for something very special indeed. Featuring the inimitable Will Carruthers of Spacemen 3, Spiritualized et. al, the five-track Lady with Ring will be released on vinyl EP and digital formats via Touch Sensitive Records on Friday, October 12. A release that doubles up as a departure from the band’s Drone Pop trilogy, the EP revolves around the story of Margorie McCall. We’re told: “McCall lived in rural Ireland in the early 18th century. She succumbed to a fever and…

  • Julia Holter Set For Dublin Return

    September 6, 2018 - By 

    Alongside details of her forthcoming fifth studio album, Aviary, it’s been revealed that Julia Holter will play Dublin in December. Having played the city twice in 2016, and once in 2012, the L.A. artist will return to play the Button Factory on Saturday, December 8. Tickets cost €24.00 and on sale this Friday at 10am. A described “cacophony of the mind in a melting world”, Aviary is out via Domino on October 26th. Read our 2016 interview with Julia Holter here.

  • HWCH Stage-Times and Conference Schedule Announced

    September 5, 2018 - By 

    The stage-times and conference schedule for this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes has been revealed. Taking place across September 27-29 in various venues across Dublin – with the conference taking place in the Chocolate Factory – full details for this year’s showcase are below. Tickets for HWCH 2018 can be bought here.

  • The Thin Air Podcast: Lankum and Yoni Wolf (Why?)

    September 5, 2018 - By 

    Having kicked off with music and chat from Frankie Cosmos and Paddy Hanna, The Thin Air podcast continues with another brace of brilliant interviews. Danny Carroll meets Dublin folk miscreants Lankum to discuss their mournfully epic song ‘The Granite Gaze’.  Along with producer Spud, the group talk through the lyrical origins of the song, listen back to an early demo, and highlight individual elements of the track’s swelling arrangement. Yoni Wolf Our other installment features Yoni Wolf, singer and songwriter with the Cincinnati group Why? Ahead of returning to Ireland, to play the Button Factory (September 17th) and Roisin Dubh (September…

  • Exhibition Opening: Imperial Courts @ Belfast Exposed

    September 5, 2018 - By 

    This Thursday (September 6th) sees the preview of Dana Lixenberg’s first solo exhibition on the island of Ireland in Belfast Exposed. Titled Imperial Courts 1993-2015, the series saw Lixenberg collect the 20th edition of the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2017. In 1992 the artist was commissioned to document areas of Los Angeles following the riots that took place after the acquittal of police officers following the much publicised brutality during the arrest of Rodney King. Lixenberg returned the following year and began a 22-year process of documenting the area and its inhabitants, focusing on the Imperial Courts housing project. The time-frame…

  • Ólafur Arnalds – Re:member

    September 4, 2018 - By 

    Despite an exhaustive back catalog brimming with collections, mixtapes, EPs and scores, it is worth noting that Re:member is only BAFTA award winning Icelandic composer and pianist Ólafur Arnalds’ fourth full length studio album. Since debuting in the late ’00s, the now 31 year-old artist has carved an identity as a serial collaborator, and has worked extensively with Erased Tapes labelmate Nils Frahm, German classical pianist Alice Sara Ott and Haukur Heiðar Hauksson, not forgetting Janus Rasmussen for his melodic techno side-project, Kiasmos. Usually synonymous with crafting spacious and contemplative melancholic soundscapes – check out his chilling soundtrack to Broadchurch – Arnalds has turned to technology…