And now a pithy decree: Hozier has unveiled the video his new single, ‘Work Song’. We think he’ll go far.
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It was shortly after delivering a memorable, thrashy show in Stiff Kitten back in 2010 that Idlewild quietly disappeared from music. It is fair to say that we missed them. Now, with the itches for solo projects having been successfully scratched and the time taken to patiently develop new material, the band returned to Belfast touring on the back of their first album in five years. The Limelight 2 was packed to absolute capacity. ‘Everything Ever Written’, despite being a good album, is unlikely to have brought such a crowd. This was clearly a loyal audience collected many years before…
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Belfast-based quintet R51 have come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years. Having cultivated a perfectly pulverizing live show and an effects-laden, shoegaze-tinged noise-pop craft that continues to surprise and intrigue, the Melyssa Shannon-fronted quartet will launch their debut EP, Pillow Talk, at Belfast’s Bar Sub on Wednesday night (April 25). In his review of the EP for the Thin Air, Will Murphy said, “Each one of the songs has something to recommend, be it the Sigur Ros vibe permeating throughout the EP closer, ‘Seaweed’, the spaced out verses on ‘I Hate That Too’ or the monstrously huge chorus on ‘Pillow…
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We’re very pleased to present this week’s Monday Mixtape, featuring none other than Sargent House founder and owner Cathy Pellow. A true champion of independent music and some of the very best artists around, Pellow’s mixtape features several unreleased tracks from the likes of R. Ariel, Mutoid Man, And So I Watch You From Afar and No Spill Blood, as well as released material from acts including Helms Alee and Wovenhand. And So I Watch You From Afar – Wasps (from Heirs, out on May 4) Blis. – Floating Somewhere High and Above (from Starting Fires In My Parents House) Empty Houses –…
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Set to take place in venues across the city from April 16-26, the programme for the 15th Belfast Film Festival has been announced. As is very much its custom, the festival has an extraordinarily diverse line-up up its sleeve this year, with categories boasting categories including New Cinema, Altered States & Twisted Corners, Northern Irish Independents/Shorts, as well as Opening & Closing films I Am Belfast, Shooting For Socrates and The Survivalist. Check out the full programme and buy tickets at the Belfast Film Festival website here.
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Having received its premiere on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 programme last month, Dublin duo All Tvvins have unveiled the rather fabulous video for their triumphant debut single, ‘Thank You’. In January we summed up a live version of the track, released last year as “A charming and bewitching math-pop track released as a live video from the post-Adebisi supergroup. Whip-smart in the composition, and beautifully restrained in the delivery, it is a wonderful dichotomy of heart-warming melodies and existential uncertainty, sealed with searing, aching swell guitar.” The video for the single – a hyper-disco, ballerina-centric mini-masterpiece – was directed by Brendan…
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Formerly known as God Knows + mynameisjOhn, month we had the pleasure of bearing witness to Limerick’s Rusangano Family live in a filming of the Parlour (in which were also guests) at Whelan’s, Dublin. Both on and off camera, the guys – one of the featured acts in our 15 for ’15 feature – delivered an electrifying brace of tracks including the equal parts excellent and ethical ‘Wasteman’. Now, ahead of their midnight performance at our second birthday party at Dublin’s Twister Pepper on Saturday, May 2, the trio have released a studio version of the track. Featuring guitar from Steve Ryan of Windings,…
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Cornwall-based, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Patrick Gardiner is a methodical songsmith that thrives on the intricacies of his craft. From the poise and refrain of his carefully-considered words to specific chord changes and structures, he has really made an impression on us, live, on more than one occasion. Three years on from his self-released debut EP, Save Myself, the Co. Down musician will release its five-track follow-up, Carcassonne, on April 1. On first listen, it’s a subtly eclectic mix of acoustic tale-telling, Gardiner’s earnest delivery on each track hovering confidently over full-band tracks underpinned with some instantly memorable melodic threads and pop nuances. Ahead…
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We’ll be celebrating our grand second birthday at Dublin’s The Twisted Pepper on Saturday, May 2. Kicking off at 6pm in the Twisted Pepper cafe with an exhibition of our magazine covers to date and selected work from our fantastic team of photographers. Following that we have Robocobra Quartet and Night Trap live in the Stage room with our headliners who will be announced on April 2nd. Rusangano Family (pictured) will be playing a special midnight gig for us in the cafe too along with DJ sets from BATS and Andy Walsh from Little Gem. More info to be announced…
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Does belonging to a location make an album better? Is Springsteen as interesting if you remove New Jersey or Nebraska? What about NWAand Compton? If this is the case, then rapper Bee Mick See’s debut Belfast Yank deserves some serious credit. The album is entirely engulfed in Belfast. Its language, culture and people are the subjects of various tracks ranging from loving portraits (‘Belfast Slang’) to lacerating polemics (‘Natural Scents’). Even his flow, which owes an obvious debt to Slug from Atmosphere, is heavily accented; it could only belong to this city. In spite of its overproduced beats, which bares a welcome resemblance to Malibu Shark Attack, it’s a strangely emotionally honest album. BeeMickSee is surprisingly…