• Reverberation Psych Fest 2016 (Day One) @ The Grand Social, Dublin

    April 12, 2016 - By 

    Following the success of last August’s inaugural outing, this year’s Reverberation Psych Fest returns to Dublin’s Grand Social for another two nights of intoxicating psychedelia, with more than a smidgen of mind-throbbing noise added into the mix. Donegal’s Tuath are tasked with opening night one on the Friday – no easy task given such a small number are in attendance by the time their time slot arrives. However the four-piece of Robert Mulhern, Ashley Mobasser, Shane McFadden and Scott Carlin grasp their time on stage with all guns blazing. Tuath’s style of play hints at elements of jazz fusion, which sits alongside a seriously heavy-metal…

  • Lisa Hannigan Announces Irish Dates

    April 11, 2016 - By 

    In which she will preview songs from her forthcoming, highly-anticipated third studio album, Lisa Hannigan will play a string of 16 Irish dates this June. Kicking off at Kildare’s Riverbank Theatre on June 2 and culminating at Galway’s Roisin Dubh 23 days later on June 24 the tour will mark Hannigan’s first Irish dates since 2012. Check them our in full below. Tickets for all dates – featuring support from Ye Vagabonds – go on sale on Wednesday, April 13 at 9am. In which she will preview songs from her forthcoming, highly-anticipated third studio album, Lisa Hannigan will play a…

  • Watch: Molossus – Sine, Spiky & Orcas

    April 11, 2016 - By 

    Comprised of members of The Jimmy Cake, Hands Up Who Want To Die and Percolator, Dublin five-piece Molossus – formerly Art Slug – are set to record their debut album later in the year. The self-proclaimed sound of “an owl and a bear fighting over a mason jar full of electricity”, the band have featured in the latest installment Sean Zissou’s Practice Tapes in the form of three-song video compilation of tracks ‘Sine’, ‘Spiky’ and ‘Ocras’, filmed at Guerilla Sounds. Traversing the post-rock gamut, this material sits cross-legged somewhere between Portishead, Jessamine and Slint; brilliantly brooding and yearning forth in a tangible attempt to clasp…

  • First Acts Announced for KnockanStockan

    April 8, 2016 - By 

    An independent music and arts festival in the truest sense of the term, KnockanStockan festival has revealed the first 50 acts set to play its grand 10th outing on July 22-24. With 100 acts yet to be announced, Come On Live Long, The Altered Hours, Oh Boland, Meltybrains?, Overhead The Albatross and Robocobra Quartet are amongst the first wave of homegrown acts confirmed to play. Check out the first line-up in full below. Speaking about the first announcement, KnockanStockan music director Graham Sharpe said, ​”We are so psyched about the bands in this announcement, this really is our favourite time of year…

  • Album stream: Rusangano Family – Let The Dead Bury The Dead

    April 8, 2016 - By 

    Very few Irish acts have so comprehensively demanded our attention over the last couple of years quite like Rusangano Family. Having featured them as one of our “ones to watch” acts in our 15 For 15 feature last year and fondly recalling their unforgettable appearance to close our second birthday party at Dublin’s Twisted Pepper last May, the Limerick trio of God Knows, MuRli and mynameisjOhn have burned with a certain indomitable zeal from the very moment they set out on what has become a journey very much worth following. Now, after after a string of increasingly tenacious standalone releases, the trio have unveiled their…

  • Forbidden Fruit Add More Acts

    April 7, 2016 - By 

    With the likes of Underworld, Tame Impala and Jungle already announced, Forbidden Fruit have revealed Dizzee Rascal, Katy B, Young Fathers, Katy B and DJ Deece are amongst the acts to perform on the Friday of the June bank holiday festival. Elsewhere, MMOTHS, Beta Band’s Steve Mason, French deep house project Klingande and The Field have also been added to the bill for this year’s festival, which is set to return to Dublin’s Royal Hospital Kilmainham from June 3-5. Check out the current day-to-day line-up below. Tickets for the Friday of Forbidden Fruit go on sale at this Friday (April 8)…

  • Reverberation Psych Fest 2016

    April 6, 2016 - By 

    With the psych scene in Ireland growing stronger by the day, the likes of Letterkenney’s Distorted Perspectives, Belfast’s Strange Victory and Sunglasses After Dark and Dublin’s Retro Revival Club play a sizeable role in putting up-and-coming homegrown talent and established acts from further afield a platform in every corner of the country. Presented by the latter, this year’s Reverberation Psych Fest will return to Dublin’s Grand Social across the weekend of April 8-10 with its strongest line-up to date. Featuring The Cosmic Dead, Twinkranes, The Cult of Dom Keller, The Black Tambourines, Woven Skull, Wild Rocket, Beach, I Heart Monster Hero, Sun Mashene and Fabric full details including…

  • Firewatch (Camp Santo, Mac / PC / PS4)

    April 6, 2016 - By 

    Today, The Guardian ran a fascinating review of the hotly anticipated strategy shooter The Division, in which the journalist highlights the lack of compassion in modern videogames. He argues that most of the latest releases are oddly detached affairs that treat violence and cruelty as little more than vehicles of guilty pleasure. They do not explore any of the thorny moral ramifications of repeatedly shooting digital people in their digital faces. Regardless of how real this action is, the thought process remains the same: you are still shooting someone in the face. The idea behind that, when you stop to…

  • Line-Up Revealed For Dublin’s Out To Lunch Weekender

    April 5, 2016 - By 

    A completely separate event from Belfast’s festival of the same name, the line-up for this year’s Out To Lunch Weekender at Dublin’s Yamamori Tengu on August 13 and 14 has been announced. Cologne based DJ and Producer Lena Willikens, snooker legend Steve Davis (read our interview with him here), Traxx, Ben UFO, DJ Sprinkles, Mr. Ties and Mark Ernestus have been confirmed to play four-hour sets. Elsewhere, Berlin-based Korean artist Peggy Gou, Compassion Crew, Lerosa, Lumigraph, Barry Redsettaz, Kenny Hanlon, Wino Wagon, Cait Dip and Damien Lynch will also perform. Tickets are available to buy now here.

  • The 39 Steps @ Lyric Theatre, Belfast

    April 5, 2016 - By 

    Whilst not in the more exalted echelons of his esteemed filmography, The 39 Steps was, of course, fully – and, to date, most famously – realised via Alfred Hitchcock’s big screen adaptation of 1935, twenty years after its initial publication as an adventure novel by Scottish author John Buchan. Re-imagining the prototypical chase movie as a decidedly more idiosyncratic and entertaining proposition over 100 years from Buchan’s original, Bruiser and Lyric Theatre’s production promises much in the way of the former’s increasingly world-renown reputation for wonderfully innovative and wilfully unconventional theatre. Directed by Lisa May – artistic director and founder of Bruiser – one can’t help immediately admire the…