New Order live at Trinity Summer Series in Dublin. Photos by Kevin Hennessy.
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The Live Room is one of Belfast’s most valuable musical resources – an eclectic, Live At KEXP-esque showcase of the finest artists to pass through Belfast, based in the city’s most welcoming and well-equipped studio, Start Together. They’ve run the gamut from the crushing doom of Slomatics and Conan to the Word Up Collective‘s hotly-tipped R&B voices of Super Silly & Jordan Adetunji. Back after a brief quiet spell, the latest in their series is title track ‘Boom Boom’, taken from the debut album by Derry-based, Idaho-born chanteuse Queen Bonobo, taken from a session recorded during Belfast’s Output Convention in February. We’ve said it before, but Maya’s vocal has the uncanny ability to take the quality of a sine wave, and…
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Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder performing a career-spanning set at Dublin’s 3Arena. Photos by Kevin Hennessy.
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One of the programmes at the beating heart of Belfast music hub Oh Yeah Music Centre is their rolling Scratch My Progress scheme. A fully-funded career development accelerator programme designed to help new musicians break through in music industry, the initiative has seen the likes of Kitt Philippa, Sister Ghost, Wynona Bleach, Strange New Places and countless other acts pass through its ranks over the years. Once again, the programme – which we can only highly recommend for up-and-coming Northern Irish bands and artists – is now recruiting selected acts for the intensive talent development programme. Full details, guidelines and application…
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Janelle Monae with support from Grace Carter at Trinity Summer Series in Dublin. Photos by Moira Reilly.
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On Thursday (July 11) Galway independent label Citóg Records will launch its highly-anticipatd fourth annual compilation at the Róisín Dubh. Once again, it’s a prime opportunity to hone in on just how far the label has come. Across eleven tracks, this new installment (which is titled Too Much Can Kill You) offers a remarkably varied and totally inspired snapshot of Citóg as a collective of artists, collaborators and friends. From the woozy sci-fi surf of Eoin Dolan’s ‘Superior Fiction’ and Tracy Bruen’s shapeshifting ‘Mirror’ to the inward-peering indie-folk of ‘Amsterdam’ by David Boland aka New Pope and beyond, it’s full, genre-spanning testament to the importance…
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With a warm, longing ode to a friend, Palehound’s third record opens with the kind of astutely observed, compassionately wrought sketch that we have come to expect from Ellen Kempner since her 2015 Dry Food, and indeed its 2017 follow-up, A Place I’ll Always Go. Where the former dealt largely with Kempner embracing her own sexuality, the follow-up was more mournful in tone, although encased in Palehound’s exuberant and often inventive indie rock they never felt maudlin or morose. ‘Company’, just Kempner and an organ, is the introduction to a Palehound record that, while tackling the same uncertainties of relationships as those previous,…
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Never one to balk at a remix, Herb Magee aka Arvo Party’s latest re-imagining is arguably one of his most inspired to date. The Belfast producer and musician (who also features in our round-up of the best Irish tracks of last month) has taken the slick, slow-burning alt-pop of HEX HUE’s ‘Numbers’ and reworked it as a widescreen electro gem in his own image. Stream it below.
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Was June the strongest month in Irish music this year so far? By way of Girl Band, Yankari, Uly, Roisin Murphy and more, Colin Gannon makes a strong case in his monthly round-up. Girl Band — Shoulderblades Girl Band (pictured) are back. Dara Kiely’s ungodly, contorted howl is back, as exorcistic and scabbed as ever. In the same month that Two Door Cinema Club made their excruciatingly ghastly comeback, Ireland’s revered purveyors of shadowy, techno-informed noise rock arose from their slumber. Kiely’s health problems led at least in part to their lack of visibility over the past few years, creating a…
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With six weeks left to go, Stendhal have announced the third wave of acts set to play this year’s festival. Returning to Ballymully Cottage farm in Limavady across 15th-17th August, the festival have revealed that SOAK (pictured), General Fiasco, Arvo Party, Rachael Boyd and Gender Chores are among the new acts to play. See the new additions in full below. Go here to check out the current full line-up and to buy tickets to this year’s festival.