The Knife’s Karin Drejier AKA Fever Ray has been announced as the first act set to play this year’s Body&Soul Festival. As well as performing at the annual Co. Westmeath festival – which returns to Ballinlough Castle across the Summer Solstice Weekend of June 22-24 – Dreijer will also curate the Body&Soul main stage on Friday night. Acts set to perform will be announced in the coming weeks. Tickets for Body&Soul 2018 are now on sale here, ranging from €169-€195.
On Thursday night, we’re teaming up with Rally to co-host one of several free showcases as part of Output 2018. Taking place at Babel (rooftop of Bullit) the gig will feature four stellar Northern Irish acts: the mighty Robocobra Quartet, fast-rising singer-songwriter Callum Stewart, headliners Blue Americans and hands down one of our favourite acts here at TTA, New Pagans. Ahead of the show (which, as with all other Output showcases, is absolutely free) New Pagans have unveiled a new single. A typically slick effort from the Lyndsey McDougall-fronted alt-rock foursome, ‘Bloody Soil’ is a jagged earworm aiming straight from the jugular. Speaking of…
Having released one of the albums of 2017 in the sublime Hug of Thunder (have a read of Jonny Currie’s verdict on the album here) it’s been announced that Canadian indie rock heroes Broken Social Scene will play Dublin’s Tivoli Theatre on May 28. Their first Dublin date in 10 years, tickets for the show – which cost €28 plus booking fee – go on sale this Friday, February 9 right here.
While Cork has no shortage of hazed-out, psych-leaning rock bands at the minute, the new-fangled – and potentially quite brilliant – Perish have instantly grabbed our ear here at TTA. Led by Australian musician and producer Ciaran Corcoran, the band – which started as a recording of Corcoran’s – will release a four-track EP, Inertia, on download and cassette via Cork’s Sunshine Cult Records on February 4. Lead single ‘Terror Swimming’ hints at something special in the making. A hazed-out trip bursting with submerged, starry-eyed guitar shapes and a wondrous wall of reverb-soaked noise, the single conjures Flying Saucer Attack…
As part of BBC’s The Biggest Weekend – a new series of events set to be held across the UK – Belfast’s Titanic Slipways will play host Beck, Courtney Barnett, Manic Street Preachers and Public Service Broadcasting across May 25 and 26. Priced £18 per person (+£4.50 booking fee) per day, tickets go on sale on Monday, February 12 at 10am. Go here for more info. See the full Biggest Weekend line-up – also taking place in Perth, Swansea and Coventry – below.
We conclude 18 for ’18, our feature showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’ve previewed each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Last up, Cherym. Photo by Mickey Rooney Though Derry-Londonderry has never experienced any dearth of first-rate punk, recent times has seen something of a renaissance on the banks of the Foyle. Set to emerge as its crowning achievement in 2018 is Cherym, a noise-pop/punk band consisting of guitarist/vocalist Hannah Richardson, bassist/vocalist Nyree Porter and drummer/vocalist, Lauren Kelly. Formed in college back in late 2016 through…
Late last year, Donegal’s Keith Mannion AKA Slow Place Like Home gifted the world with one of the strongest and most uniquely inspired Irish albums of the year. Released via Galway’s Strange Brew Rekkids, When I See You… Ice Cream! offered many peaks, not least in the form of its fourth single, ‘Shadowcat’. Reworked for today’s standalone release, the track’s submerged electro weaves a spell out of Mannion’s vocals, slithering synth patterns and some sublime, flittering beats. Accompanying the single release is a remix of SPLH track ‘Falesia’ by Andrew Morrison AKA The Cyclist. Do yourself a favour and delve into both below. Slow Place Like…
Released in November last year, ‘Let This Remain’ by Alana Henderson perfectly distils the Belfast-based cellist and singer-songwriter’s carefully-composed, wonderfully idiosyncratic craft. Revealing the nuance and intimate nature of the song is a new video courtesy of Belfast photographer and filmmaker Joe Laverty. Directed and edited by Laverty – with additional camera work from Jude McCaffrey and Sharon Whittaker, and colour grading from Malachy Campbell – the video features Henderson performing the song with accompaniment from Pleasure Beach’s Alan Haslam at the Belfast Telegraph building, a stark, towering space that has since been reawakened as a venue. Unsurprisingly, the performance is nothing short of utterly…
Of the various Northern absentees from this year’s Choice Music Prize, Stevie Scullion’s Malojian (for last year’s This Is Nowhere) was perhaps the most notable. Thankfully, Scullion isn’t one to focus on such things. Having always embodied a forward-moving spirit, his latest album, Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home, is a remarkable effort, confining within its 11 tracks boundless heart and carefully-crafted, collaborative depth. Blurring the lines between wry and sincere, new single ‘Beard Song’ conjures Grandaddy at their most stripped-back and – as we’ve mentioned in relation to Scullion before – the intelligent, economical pop finesse of latter-day Beatles (No one will need reminding that is far from a…
We continue 18 for ’18, our feature of showcasing eighteen Irish acts we’re convinced are going places in 2018. Throughout January we’re going to be previewing each of those acts, accompanied by words from our writers and an original photograph from one of our photographers. Next up is Tipperary’s Molly Sterling. Photo by Ciara Brennan Try as one might, it’s usually nigh on impossible to clearly pinpoint what demarcates a great artist from a good one. Often, the real difference can only be traced in the smallest moments – music that has a way with itself, the space between the…