• Premiere: Mob Wife – Warm Water

    August 17, 2018 - By 

    In the vein of past noise rock/post-hardcore outfit PigsAsPeople, and following the closure of Chris Leckey’s emo-hued dark alt. country project Via:Barvikha, he returns to the idea of the power trio. Today, we introduce you to Mob Wife, a new project that carries the heft of the former without losing the subtlety of the latter. The band’s caliber isn’t under question, with one of Belfast’s busiest drummers in Gascan Ruckus‘ Mark McDaid and producer & Ghost Office/Pale Lanterns‘ Carl Small on bass. ‘Warm Water’ is characteristic Leckey – blackly comic in its nihilism, the song tackles the 9-5 office grind that Dolly loved so well – stale coffee…

  • Pull Focus: The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid

    August 14, 2018 - By 

    The word ‘foreign’ is used a lot in The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid, Feargal Ward and Tadhg O’Sullivan’s portrait of a Kildare farmer holding out against the Irish state’s property vultures. Mostly it’s in the context of ‘foreign direct investment’, or FDI, the economic incentive at the heart of Thomas Reid’s problems. The socially isolated farmer’s home is in the sights of electronic manufacturer Intel, who want to expand their local factory facility. As explained by a representative from Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency, the arm of the state responsible for scouting and securing land for multi-nationals, the farm is ‘really the most appropriate’ site for…

  • Microdisney Set For Vicar Street Show

    August 14, 2018 - By 

    It’s been announced that 80s Irish indie cult band Microdisney will play Dublin’s Vicar Street on February 18, 2019. Formed in Cork in 1980 by Cathal Coughlan and Sean O’Hagan, the pair will play returned to the stage to play shows in Dublin’s National Concert Hall and London’s Barbican Hall in June. Yet to be acquainted with the band? Go here. Priced €45 inclusive of booking fee, tickets for the Vicar Street show go on sale on Friday, August 17th at 9am,

  • Watch: Arvo Party – D U S T

    August 11, 2018 - By 

    In July last year, Belfast electronic/ambient producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party arrived via his self-titled, Northern Irish Music Prize-nominated debut LP. Recorded and written in Belfast, Bangor, Bushmills, Denver, Strasburg, London, Holland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Dublin and far beyond, it was a carefully-crafted trip veering between drone, dense ambience, and shapeshifting electronica à la Wolfgang Voigt, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Tangerine Dream. Having bridged the gap with the sublime ‘Liberté ’ back in May, Magee is back with his strongest single effort to date, ‘D U S T’ . Marrying bushwacking beats and propulsive synth-bass with submerged vocals that sees…

  • The Meg

    August 10, 2018 - By 

    Is it possible for a film to be not bad enough? Maybe that’s the wrong way to frame it. Shoddiness comes not just in quantity but in flavour: there’s good-bad, bad-bad, no-budget-bad, cheesy-bad, doomed-from-birth-bad. Producing high-yield schlock involves a precise cocktail of badness. The problem with The Meg, which feels like the frazzled product of heatwaved heads, is in its badness ratio: not enough fun-bad, too much boring-bad. The Meg, in which Jason Statham takes on a giant shark with growling one-liners and a steady harpoon arm, goes for two genre tones, and ends up splitting the difference. One is the…

  • Bathing in Folk: An Interview with Jeremy Barnes of A Hawk and A Hacksaw

    August 9, 2018 - By 

    Ahead of their gig in the Workman’s club next week, Jack Rudden chats to Jeremy Barnes of A Hawk and Hacksaw about Eastern European music, Don Quixote and the possibility of Jeff Mangum being a time traveller. Photo by Christian Pallin. Many people know you as a drummer, but you are also an accomplished accordionist. Which instrument did you pick up first and which would you consider your primary instrument? The drum kit was my first instrument. My goal as a youth was to make as much noise as possible on it. I as not interested in nuance. I wanted to…

  • The Olllam w/ Síomha @ Black Box, Belfast

    August 8, 2018 - By 

    When the Black Box has a good night it tends to have a very good night and the general atmosphere upon arriving to the last night of The Olllam’s tour of the island seems to indicate that we’re in for a very good night. Warm word of mouth reviews from all corners and word that Joe Dart of Vulfpeck has joined them on bass throughout the tour brings a buzz of expectation to the room, and more than couple of curious Vulfpeck fans out of the woodwork, too. The room is a touch warmer than it really needs to be,…

  • Line-Up Unveiled For Hard Working Class Heroes 2018

    August 8, 2018 - By 

    Hard Working Class Heroes have revealed their line up for this year’s festival, taking place on September 27-29 across various venues in Dublin city centre including The Workman’s Club, Tengu, and The Grand Social. The 50 local acts announced in alphabetic order are: 1000 Beasts, A. Smyth, AE MAK, Alan Finan, Awkward Z, Bad Bones, Beauty Sleep, Bicurious, Brenna Carroll, Chanele McGuinness, Crook, Damola, Darce, Evans Junior, Feather Beds, Flynn, Hand Models, Hunkpapa, I Have A Tribe, Jack O’ Rourke, Josh Gray, Joshua Burnside, Just Mustard, Kitt Philippa, Laoise, Leila Jane, Malojian, Maria Kelly, Molly Sterling, New Atlas, New Pagans, Ódú, Owen Denvir,…

  • FairPlé Set To Hold Two Day Festival of Music & Ideas

    August 8, 2018 - By 

    The first of its kind in Irish traditional music, grassroots coalition of musicians FairPlé holds its first festival of music & ideas over Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th September was founded to address gender balance in Irish traditional and folk music, and has been expanding and rolling out an increasing number of important events across the island. A series of panel discussions are set to take place at Liberty Hall on September 8 to address the issue of sexual harassment in the arts and Irish music, with a focus on the self-employed status of musicians. Participants will explore the rights and responsibilities of…

  • Therapeutic Comedy: An Interview with Mad Notions

    August 8, 2018 - By 

    “The last thing we wanted to do was be just another podcast where two or three lads sit around chatting about nothing for an hour.” Mission accomplished then for Mick McCullagh and Nathan O’Regan, hosts of the Mad Notions podcast. Far from their fear of chatting about nothing, over the past six months the two musicians have, perhaps accidentally, created something which is having a positive impact on other musicians in Northern Ireland beyond the infectious howls of laughter the two share during episodes. Cooped up in Nathan’s home studio better known as the ‘Poditorium’ once a week, Mick and…