• Watch: Girls Names – Reticence

    November 30, 2015 - By 

    The cover stars of our final magazine issue of 2015, Girls Names have recently returned from yet another successful trek across Europe, touring their seriously accomplished new album, Arms Around a Vision. Aside from a show planned at Belfast’s Black Box on December 19, the Cathal Cully-fronted band will lay low until the New Year before setting off on another European mini-tour, culminating in three Irish dates and SXSW 2016. Tiding us over until then, the band have unveiled the Matthew Reed-directed video for ‘Reticence’, a highlight from their aforementioned third studio album in four years. Mirroring the song’s turbid bent and clanging power,…

  • Watch: Robocobra Quartet – Witch Hunt (Live)

    November 30, 2015 - By 

    From the release of their BOMBEP EP back in April, unveiling double-single Iwazaru/Mizaru in October and several memorable shows in Belfast and further afield, it’s safe to say 2015 has been something of a breakthrough year for Robocobra Quartet. A quick scan through our copious posts on the Chris Ryan-fronted band – before and after featuring them as one of our 15 For ’15 – reveals that we’ve called them: chamber punk, jazz-inflected rap-punk, rapjazz-punk, jazz-rap-punk, jazz-punk and (our current personal favourite) “four-piece”. At this juncture, then, it’s say to safe we’ve reached a descriptor Endgame when it comes to even flirting with the idea of summing up…

  • Premiere: Chris Hanna – B.K.I.T.B

    November 27, 2015 - By 

    Set to feature on Belfast electronic imprint Extended Play’s EP50: STATEMENT OF INTENT – out Monday, November 30 – we’re pleased to premiere ‘B.K.I.T.B’ by Belfast producer Chris Hanna. Standing for ‘Broken Knuckles In The Bunatee’, Hanna said of the track: “‘Broken Knuckles In The Bunatee’ is my nod to the room in the Queens University Student’s Union. It regularly hosts Belfast’s rowdiest nights. When things kick off in the place the low ceiling always takes the brunt of it and I wanted to make something as a tribute to that exact moment. They’ve happened so frequently now they’ve started repairing…

  • Album Premiere: Imaginary People – Dead Letterbox

    November 30, 2015 - By 

    Produced by Kevin McMahon (Swans, Real Estate) we’re very pleased to premiere Dead Letterbox, the debut album from New York band Imaginary People. Marrying straight-up garage rock with a synth-laden, instantly infectious impetus, the Dylan Von Wager-fronted five-piece have forged an eleven-track release bursting with darkly, impassioned zeal tantamount to David Byrne and Protomartyr concocting all kinds of bunker-resigned sounds in the cold dead of night. You can stream the album in full via Soundcloud now below. Keep up to date with Imaginary People right here.

  • Watch: Myles Manley – Slip Into The Sea

    November 30, 2015 - By 

    A nonpareil artist very much operating on his own creative axis, Myles Manley positively inveigled us back in 2012 with his self-titled debut EP. In the three years since, he has maintained that power to intrigue and ensnare with a trickle of releases including mini-album More Songs, released back in February. The latest single to be released from that, the somnambulant ‘Slip Into The Sea’ is both the closer and our personal favourite track from that release, conjuring a submersing netherworld that Manley can lay claim to as czar. Directed, film and edited by Michael Higgins, watch the video for Slip into the Sea and check out upcoming Myles Manley tour dates supporting…

  • Popical Island All-Dayer 5

    November 30, 2015 - By 

    With more acts to be announced (deep breath) Squarehead, Skelocrats, Lie Ins, Ginnels, No Monster Club, Walpurgis Family, The Number 1s and Me and My Dog will congregate for the common good AKA celebrating Dublin collective and label Popical Island’s grand fifth All-Dayer upstairs in Whelans on Saturday, December 19. And true to title, things will kick off at the sprightly hour of 3pm and wrap up around 11pm. Entry is a measly €10. Go here for the show’s Facebook event page.

  • Framewerk Winter Exhibition

    November 26, 2015 - By 

    East Belfast contemporary art gallery Framewerk will launch its annual winter exhibition on Saturday, November 28 at its premises on 16 Upper Newtonards Road. An eclectic mix of artists that the gallery (also a respected framing business) has encountered over the last six months, the exhibition presents ceramics, jewellery, sculpture, prints and paintings from the following established and emerging artists: Judith Logan, Joe Lindsay, FXD, Kat St Angelou, SevVen, Robin Cordiner, Shauna Magowan, John Macormac, Esther O Donaghue, Siobhan Conyngham, Patrick Conyngham, Merlin, Fergal Donnelly, Neal Hughes, Johanna Leech, Benny Sweeney, Sam Fleming, Trudy Creen, Christopher Martin, Clodagh Lavelle and Patrick Colhoun. Go here for the exhibition’s Facebook event page and keep up with all things Framewerk related at their website here.

  • KLUBNACHT

    November 26, 2015 - By 

    On Friday, December 11, the ever tasteful Homebeat and the Goethe Institut will present KLUBNACHT, a night that aims to celebrate the finest Irish and German electronic music held in and throughout the sublime Georgian surrounds of the soon-to-be-refurbished office buildings of The Goethe Institut on Merrion Square, Dublin. As can only be expected from the Homebeat crew by now, the line-up for this inaugural showcase is pretty special. As well as a DJ set from Waterford born, Berlin-residing Neill Flynn of resident German imprint Lossless, KLUBNACHT will also feature producer Martin Enke AKA Lake People (Live), Dublin duo Harry Bookless and Aaron Page AKA…

  • Other Voices Live 2015

    November 26, 2015 - By 

    Bona fine Irish music institution Other Voices returns to Dingle in Kerry across the weekend of December 4-6 for another stellar, genre-spanning showcase of international and homegrown music. Split between the main event in St. Jame’s Church and the iconic – free – Music Trail (full line-up below), the likes of Low, Gaz Coombes and Richard Hawley will grace the former, whilst some of the very best Irish acts take over the former. Go here to check out full information via the Other Voices website, here to stream our Other Voices Live 2015 Festival Mixtape and here for its Facebook…

  • Festival Mixtape: Other Voices Dingle 2015

    November 26, 2015 - By 

    Other Voices‘ December residency in Dingle has well and truly confirmed itself to be an Irish music institution over the last few years, bringing together some of the country’s finest artists with the very best, genre-spanning international acts. Returning to the scenic Kerry town across December 4-6, this year’s line-up – from the likes of Richard Hawley, OTHERKIN, Low to the ever magnificent (and totally free) Music Trail – is a perfectly balanced proposition to behold. With just over a week to this year’s outing, we’ve compiled a selection of tracks from acts playing this year’s Other Voices in a handy little Spotify playlist.