• Sharon Van Etten – Remind Me Tomorrow

    February 5, 2019 - By 

    “Kid came back. A real turn around.” Remind Me Tomorrow’s extraordinary lead single ‘Comeback Kid’ was an electrifying jolt to the system. Ducking and weaving like a prizefighter over buzzing synths and a clatter of snare drums, it was a hair raising musical feat that instantly heralded a radical break from Sharon Van Etten’s established sound. It is a trend that runs to the core of an album, which eschews her typical palette of dark guitar textures and sombre piano  in favour of a warmer, glossier soundscape that brims and burbles with vintage electronics and off kilter percussion. Each track…

  • Alice In Chains Set For Dublin and Belfast Shows

    February 4, 2019 - By 

    Legendary Seattle band Alice In Chains will play two Irish shows in the Spring. Taking place as part of a broader UK and Irish tour, the band will play Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on Monday, May 20 and Belfast’s Telegraph Building on Tuesday, May 21st. Tickets go on sale this Friday (February 8) at 9am.

  • Isobel Anderson and Alliance for Choice Launch #IMALIFE Fundraiser

    February 1, 2019 - By 

    Belfast-based musician Isobel Anderson has teamed up with Northern Irish abortion rights organisation Alliance for Choice for an important fundraiser, #imalife Centering around one woman’s account of her journey to England to have an abortion, her song ‘_4284_ / I’m A Life’ – titled after the number of women who travelled from NI and ROI to access abortions in 2015 – doubles up as a powerful and incredibly well presented accompaniment to the appeal. “This money is vital to enable us to deliver workshops across Northern Ireland and GB,’ Alliance for Choice said. “Those we have done so far have made a tangible…

  • Can You Ever Forgive Me?

    February 1, 2019 - By 

    Chin chin! A half-cut treat to see off a dry January, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is an immensely enjoyable and assured tragi-comic memoir, Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant in a spirited double act as a pair of grifting boozehounds in early 90’s New York. McCarthy has made her name playing loud, sweary and angry, but beneath her characters’ luridly detailed, improv-style threats of violence there is usually a blinking pilot light of sadness, marking women who feel beaten down, ignored and overlooked. The puppy-nabbing outsider in Bridesmaids; the minimum-wage worker in Tammy; the aggrieved middle-aged woman ditched by her husband in…

  • Premiere: Winterlude – Winterlude II

    February 1, 2019 - By 

    Winterlude is an occasional song outlet of Neil Brogan, better known as the singer and guitarist of Belfast’s perennial bittersweet janglers Sea Pinks (who released 7th album, Rockpool Blue, back in September). But were Sea Pinks tend towards vibrant colour, Winterlude is a much more muted, understated prospect. Following on from 2015’s Four Songs, now available for the first time on all digital outlets, the two new songs on Winterlude II strip things right back. Brogan’s voice floats over a murmured Spanish guitar on ‘Thrown Chorus’, before pulling back to reveal a barren panorama of double tracked cello and skeletal piano. ‘Frozen Lake (Fade)’ is even more sparse sounding, just…

  • This Month In Irish Music: January

    January 31, 2019 - By 

    In the first of a new regular series, Colin Gannon rounds up the very best Irish tracks released of the month just gone, featuring SOAK, Arvo Party, ELLL, Problem Patterns, James Joys, Sister Ghost, Gadget & The Cloud , Maria Somerville and more. Problem Patterns — Allegedly In a month where the R&B musician R. Kelly—after painfully long years of swerving accountability for persistent, unsettling claims of heinous abuses—may finally have his day of reckoning in a court, new Belfast-based feminist punk group Problem Patterns’ snarling debut single, ‘Allegedly’, lands a certain potency. The word allegedly—itself a necessary adverb used in copy…

  • Album Premiere: Empire Circus – Tí

    January 31, 2019 - By 

    Dublin quartet Empire Circus are a band whose accessible, yet eclectic indie-pop craft bears the imprint of influences including Wilco, Beck, The War on Drugs, R.E.M. and even early Peter Gabriel (always a plus in our eyes Founded in 2012, their self-titled debut album – which was released in September of 2013 – confined within its twelve tracks real promise, and an FM-leaning, carefully-crafted sound that hinted at something more substantial with the passing of time and the creative maturation that accompanies that. Tomorrow (February 1) the band release its long-awaited follow-up, Tí. And sure enough, it’s a cohesive and accomplished release that trims Empire…

  • Premiere: Larry – Cocker Spaniel

    January 31, 2019 - By 

    As you may have recently noticed, we’re firmly of the opinion that Dundalk lo-fi alt-rock trio Larry are going places in 2019 and beyond. The first single from the band’s forthcoming, Steve Albini-produced (and Bob Weston-mastered) debut album, ‘Cocker Spaniel’ could not sum up our collective conviction more. Accompanied by a wonderful video, featuring pro-quality camera work from an actual cocker spaniel, called Jesse, it’s a fervent, four-minute paean to freedom and psychic wanderlust. Have a first look and listen below. Larry’s debut album will be released via Pizza Pizza records on April 26th. ‘Cocker Spaniel’ is officially out tomorrow.