• Album Stream: Conor Mason – On The Surface

    November 3, 2018 - By 

    As October gives way to the dark, nippy evenings of November and beyond, most of us will find ourselves turning to music – old favourites and new discoveries both – that double up as soundtracks to the seasonal transition. For some, this will(and, as we see it, absolutely should) include the extraordinary new album from Derry’s Conor Mason. Six years on from his second album, Standstill, On The Surface finds the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist at the peak of his powers in the realm of carefully-crafted, and beautifully wistful alt-pop.  From the sublime harmonic arc and flow singles ‘Follow’ and ‘On The Surface’,…

  • Johnny Marr @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

    November 3, 2018 - By 

    “Sorry, I forget to say shit in between songs. Oh yeah, politics. Fucking great, right? Don’t worry. This is a safe politics-free zone for tonight. I’m allowed to take the piss, though…” 34 years on from gracing its hallowed walls with the Smiths, Johnny Marr is mid-way through a generation-blurring set at Belfast’s iconic Ulster Hall. He’s one day into his 55th year, and with his recently-released third solo album, Call The Comet, marking a new creative resurgence, he’s twice the character and poise of that 21-year-old back in 1984. Kickstarting a new European tour, tonight bridges three eras into one seamless celebratory whole…

  • Stream: Rory Nellis – The Fear

    November 2, 2018 - By 

    Around 1990, a small boy saw Matthew Broderick miming to a Beatles song on a carnival float. Shortly afterwards, he started writing songs, and he’s been doing it ever since. Fast forward a few years and Belfast singer-songwriter Rory Nellis is currently working on his third album, the highly-anticipated follow-up to an LP widely considered one of the strongest Northern Irish albums of 2017, There Are Enough Songs in The World. Capturing an artist whose music stems from carefully-crafted musings on life, death, relationships and – occasionally – politics, forthcoming single ‘The Fear’ finds Nellis at his most musically earworming,…

  • Stream: Arvo Party – Halloween (Main Theme)/Tubular Bells (Exorcist Theme)

    October 31, 2018 - By 

    John Carpenter’s soundtrack to his 1978 classic Halloween remains one of the greatest horror scores of all time – a fact reflected in the many tributes and remixes of its main themes over the years, not least Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ cover of the film’s menacing and instantly recognisable main theme. Last Halloween, Belfast producer Herb Magee AKA Arvo Party offered his own take with a “VHS Mix” interpretation that blended original with a lo-fi, wonderfully warped aesthetic and shuddering synth work more redolent of Carpenter’s soundtracks to the likes of Assault on Precinct 13. Now, in the year of our Lord John Carpenter…

  • Inbound: Ex-Isles

    October 31, 2018 - By 

    Last month, Belfast duo James Joys and Pete Devlin AKA Ex-Isles released one of the strongest debuts from an Irish act in recent memory. Masterfully nuanced and politically-minded, the expansive chamber pop of Luxury Mass conjured everyone from John Grant and Scott Walker, to David Sylvian and ANOHNI, all while introducing a project mustering its very own magic. With the pair currently working on the follow-up to Luxury Mass, and a busy 2019 forecast, James Joys talks to us about their “dark swoon”, impetus, collaboration, literary and musical influence, and crafting music that explores our growing alienation from agency over our own lives under capitalism. Ex-Isles…

  • The Specials Announce Dublin Return

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    2-Tone heroes The Specials have announced their return to Dublin next year. Having last played the city back in 2014, the Coventry band will play Olympia Theatre on April 11th. The show is part of the band’s 40th anniversary tour, and coincides with the release of a new album, Encore – the band’s first new music in 37 years. Tickets go on sale on Friday, November 2 at 9am.

  • The Thin Air’s Alternative Halloween Playlist

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    We’ve all been there: the Halloween soiree is well under away and ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ is on its third outing in two hours. As much as you totally nailed that leg solo the second time ’round, there’s a burning – nay, practically murderous – need for new tunes to see in Samhain in style. Pre-empt that happening all over again by taking advantage of our seventy-five track alternative Halloween Spotify playlist, featuring everyone from John Maus, Broadcast and The Cramps to Flying Lotus, Suicide and Tangerine Dream.

  • Massive Attack Set For Mezzanine XXI 2019 Show in Dublin

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    Bristol trip-hop legends Massive Attack will stop off in Dublin next as part of a tour celebrating their seminal 1998 album, Mezzanine. Promising a “totally new audio/visual production” the show at Dublin’s 3Arena on Sunday, February 24 will also feature Elizabeth Fraser, the Cocteau Twins singer who lent her vocals to the album’s second single ‘Teardrop’. The show will re-imagine Mezzanine via “custom audio reconstructed from the original samples and influences”, and is described by Robert Del Naja AKA 3D as “a one off piece of work; our own personalised nostalgia nightmare head trip”. Tickets are priced €49.50 and go on sale…

  • Mac DeMarco @ Limelight 1, Belfast

    October 30, 2018 - By 

    Why does 28-year-old Mac DeMarco command so much reverence from so many younger fans, right across the world? It’s a question as old as time (or, well, circa 2013), and yet, a definitive answer is still outstanding. Sure, there’s the midpoint he strikes between authenticity and unconcern. There’s the albums and countless live shows that veer between inward-gazing, heart-stung, silly and fun as all fuck (and who, juvenile or flirting with the grave, can’t get behind that?) Then there’s the tattered baseball cap and rollies chic, which is every bit as dominant as a love of the harmonic twists and turns that…

  • Preview: Stick in The Wheel

    October 23, 2018 - By 

    On Thursday, October 25th, we team up once again with the North’s finest promoters of forward-moving sounds, Moving on Music. And it’s all for good reason: the Belfast debut of East London four-piece Stick in The Wheel at the Duncairn. Led by vocalist Nicola Kearey and guitarist Ian Carter, the quartet are widely regarded by everyone from MOJO,  UNCUT and the BBC Folk Awards, to our very own Lankum, as one of the most compelling – and not to mention most culturally and politically switched – folk acts around. Combined, the band’s two full-length albums to date – From Here and Follow Me True –…