• Rachael Lavelle – Big Dreams

    November 21, 2023 - By 

    Swirling and surreal, Rachael Lavelle’s Big Dreams is a coming of age that pokes holes in the digital, postmodern reality it exists within. Self-professed by the Dublin artist as “an introspective journey that invites the listener to ask what it means to be alive in the 21st century,” it throws you the answer in the form of another question – who knows? Conceptually faultless from its gleaming and buoyant visuals to its unnerving dream-like soundscapes, the record is both languid and urgent. Co-produced by Lavelle alongside Ryan Hargadon, cinematic orchestral structures swathe over manipulated vocals and fragmented electronic beats on…

  • Inbound: Chubby Cat

    July 27, 2023 - By 

    The last year has been markedly transitional for Cat Doran aka Chubby Cat; a new name, new city, and new vibe to contextualise the alt-pop artist’s emergence as she builds on the hype that’s followed her 2021 debut ‘slipping’.  The Cork-born artist made her Belfast debut at Output in 2022, showcasing to an impressively-sized crowd of listeners left reeling by her vocal riffs. A year on, having made the move up from Dublin at the start of this spring to work on new music, what’s to come is certainly Belfast’s gain. The BIMM graduate’s artistic ethic and approach are both…

  • AVA 2023: This Year’s Giants

    June 2, 2023 - By 

    As daylight savings hits its true peak this weekend so too does the Belfast rave crowd. Launching with a pre-festival party tonight at local independent fashion merchants Never Never, AVA Festival returns to the feet of David & Goliath with a line-up that cements its status as one of the most well-reputed and respected electronic festivals in Europe. As usual the line up consists of big-hitters from the Island and beyond, this year in the form of Central Cee, SPFDJ, Job Jobse, Sally C and OR:LA. The festival’s consistently solid bookings provide further excitement than simply bringing big names to…

  • Inbound: Yinyang

    May 3, 2023 - By 

    Part of a crop of artists from the North that are bending genre to break its confines, Yinyang is all about duality. Known offstage as Lauren Hannan, the artist’s select but ferocious string of five singles, culminating in last year’s booming, bass-heavy ‘Happy Money’, fuse together alternative hip-hop with pop-punk sensibilities. There’s a bit of GIRLI meets Biig Piig; a bold sense of self and delivery with a self-conscious edge. Huge production values mask the bite of scathing verses that you’d perhaps miss on a first listen, with subject matter tackling mental illness, antidepressants, down and bad days. Paired together…

  • Reigning Supreme: An Interview with Pillow Queens

    June 14, 2022 - By 

    Blue balls, deep fakes, and good clean fun with the flourishing Dublin indie rock quartet Words by Addison Paterson // Photos by Loreana Rushe Pillow Queens are still for a rare minute. The Dublin four-piece just got back from touring their second LP Leave The Light On in the US, and it’s a couple of weeks before they head to the UK. Then Europe, then festival season. It’s quite the change from the album launch they experienced with 2020’s In Waiting — a virtual listening party with fans, all sat in their respective kitchens. Nought to one hundred.  For now, they’re…

  • Amplify Voices Instead of Muddying the Channels

    August 12, 2021 - By 

    TW: This article references sexual abuse and its portrayal within the music industry. Last summer, accounts of abuse inflicted by well-known creatives with varying degrees of influence within the music scene in the North, shared publicly on social media, set the precedent for an active stance of zero tolerance on emotional and physical violence going forward. By way of ripple effect, the conversation has induced a wider consideration of whether not being abusive, or even being anti-abuse, is enough: What do we want to accept, engage with, and platform? What are our individual responsibilities when it comes to addressing these…

  • Inbound: Amerik

    April 21, 2021 - By 

    In the early 2000s, Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello’s method of overcoming physical distance in musical collaboration was so unusual that they named the resulting project – The Postal Service – after it. In 2021, it’s the new normal. Funny, then, that Adam Booth, Belfast producer of instrumental music under the moniker Amerik, chose the current climate for his first collaborative effort. Perfectly timed as we all prepare to get a little closer to each other, his second EP, Bouquet, brings together Gareth Dunlop, Travi The Native, Little Rivers, and Pete Wallace for a richly seasoned collection of heartfelt sounds…