• Long Beyond Sundown @ The Menagerie

    September 26, 2019 - By 

    Take a look around you. It’s officially the time of the season, is it not? The evenings are growing darker, doomy vibrations linger unseen in the air and you’ve suddenly got an inexplicable desire to frequent your local graveyard after-hours. We hear you. We do. As does Ben Harris, main man with Belfast garage maestos The Dreads and all-round apostle and advocate of the aforementioned. Throughout the month of October, Harris will present Long Beyond Sundown, a collection of films exploring folklore, witchcraft and the occult at Belfast venue the Menagerie. And what a fine, handpicked selection it is, too. Delving into the likes of colonialism,…

  • A Winged Victory for the Sullen Set For Irish Dates

    September 25, 2019 - By 

    Ambient duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen are set for Irish dates next year. Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Wiltzie (also of Stars of the Lid) will play Dublin’s National Concert Hall on March 3rd and Belfast’s St. Rosemary Chuch on March 4th. Tickets are priced €27.50 and £22.50 (and booking fee) respectively. Accompanying the announcement of tour dates is the news of the pair’s forthcoming new album, The Undivided Five, which is out via Ninja Tune on November 1st. Check out its tracklist and stream ‘The Undivided Five’ from the release below. 1.Our Lord Debussy 2. Sullen Sonata 3.…

  • Pixies – Beneath the Eyrie

    September 24, 2019 - By 

    Complaints about Pixies’ latter-day output – that is, their two LPs of post-reunion material, 2014’s Indie Cindy and 2016’s Head Carrier – have been plentiful, and loud: it’s not the same without Kim Deal, whose gifts for odd yet propulsive rhythm and sense of unnerving harmony had contributed so much to their sound before she left the band in 2013; it recalls too often Black Francis AKA Charles Thompson’s solo work, lacking the demented energy that defined their early material; the biblical, literary, and cinematic references, once deployed wittily, now sound laboured or even self-parodic. The criticism hasn’t been entirely unfounded. The urgency that infused their…

  • Video Premiere: Jake Regan – Unfair

    September 25, 2019 - By 

    When Jake Regan‘s debut single ‘Over It’ came out, we said he’d “instantly staked his claim as one of the country’s most promising and distinctive songwriting voices”, and new double A-side ‘Unfair / Stay’ compounds that fact – with the former’s video out today. It’s a perfect 3 minute, scuzzed-out power-pop song about the would-be artist’s reality crash-landing that deftly navigates the tightrope between sincere & pointedly self-aware. Based on the oh-so-relatable D.I.Y. artist’s perspective, Regan tells us more: “The song came from frustration at the stratospheric recent success of the Fontaines, and the weird flurry of identical bands that followed them. There are so many angry young men…

  • Video Premiere: The Bonk – May Feign

    September 25, 2019 - By 

    The first of ten commandments that Captain Beefheart drilled into guitarist Moris Tepper upon joining the band in 1976 was: “Listen to the birds – That’s where all music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren’t going anywhere.” If you’ve caught The Bonk live, then you’ll know what it is to be hypnotised by exactly that pendulous meditation on a single groove, as each of their seven(ish) members instinctively weave around each other, while time falls away. Today, we’re delighted to premiere ‘May Feign’,…

  • Mixtape Preview: Donnie Darko

    September 24, 2019 - By 

    Mentally divorce, for a moment, music from Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko. You’re still left with a genre-defining film. A contemporary indie classic. A movie blurring the lines between horror, black comedy, teen drama and cult sci-fi mind-bender. Put it back – Michael Andrews’ motifs brimming with vintages Moogs and electric vibraphone, alongside era-defining jams from Tears For Fears, Oingo Boingo, Echo & The Bunnymen and more – and you have a near perfect big-screen encapsulation of a particular breed of ’80s suburban ennui.   Despite its lacklustre performance at the box office, Donnie Darko was, of course, a runaway critical…

  • Iron Maiden Set For Belfast Show

    September 23, 2019 - By 

    Heavy metal legends Iron Maiden are set for a Belfast return. Having last played the city in August last year as part of their Legacy of the Beast tour, the Bruce Dickinson-fronted band will play Belfast’s Ormeau Park as part of Belsonic 2020 on Monday, June 15th. Tickets go on sale on Friday, September 27th at 9am.

  • And So I Watch You From Afar Announce New Release ‘Jettison’

    September 23, 2019 - By 

    North Coast instrumental titans And So I Watch You From Afar have announced details of their next release. Posting on Facebook, the quartet shared the news about Jettison – a project they say is “unlike anything we’ve ever undertaken before”: “We’re beyond excited to be able to share the initial context to our next release, and it’s called Jettison. During winter last year we left for the wilds of Donegal, joined by a string quartet and made this unique piece of music. Equal parts political, cultural and musical, Jettison is an irreverential two finger salute against convention. The single piece…