• Vantastival Postponed Until September

    March 11, 2020 - By 

    Vantastival has been postponed until September. The annual Drogheda music festival, which was set to return across May 29-31, is the latest event to be postponed due to issues surrounding the global spread of Coronavirus. The festival will now take place across September 18th-20th and all tickets purchased are valid for the new dates. In a Facebook post, organisers said: “Due to multiple challenges arising from the spread of Coronavirus, we have reluctantly taken the decision to postpone the Vantastival festival, which will now take place 18th – 20th September 2020. All expert opinion indicates the situation is likely to deteriorate…

  • Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Set For Dublin and Belfast Shows

    March 11, 2020 - By 

    One of the very finest face-melting propositions around, Newcastle heavy psych masters Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs will play a brace of Irish dates in November. The Matthew Baty-fronted band, who release their new album Viscerals in April, will play the Belfast’s The Empire on November 26th and Whelan’s in Dublin on November 28th. Priced £18 and €20.00 respectively, tickets go on sale on Friday, March 13th at 10am.

  • 10 for ’20: Rachael Lavelle

    March 10, 2020 - By 

    Jack Rudden predicts exciting things for Dublin’s Rachael Lavelle in 2020 and far beyond. Photo by Kevin Hennessy Gothic, bewitching and haunting, Rachael Lavelle is all of these things and many more. The Dublin musician is as multifaceted as she is enchanting. A competent songstress and interesting producer, Lavelle creates music that exists somewhere between Baroque compositions and ambient experimentations. She is the intersection of Bjork and Laurie Anderson. In Lavelle’s music there are countless layers of sonic peculiarities. Found sounds dissolve into oceans of ambient electronics, which are counterpointed by assertive piano lines and a strikingly idiosyncratic vocal tone. She…

  • And So I Watch You From Afar Announce OK? Festival

    March 2, 2020 - By 

    North Coast instrumental rock trailblazers And So I Watch You From Afar have announced details of a new music and arts festival in support of mental awareness and suicide prevention. Created to “celebrate community and to encourage asking the question… are you ok?” OK? will unite some of the country’s best acts at Belfast’s Telegraph Building on Saturday, March 28th. Raising money for Aware NI, PIPS and Help Musicians, the show will feature sets from ASIWYFA, SOAK, General Fiasco, David Holmes, Phil Kieran, Joshua Burnside, New Pagans, Catalan!, Pillow Queens, Junk Drawer, Jordan Adetunji, Careerist, Cherym, Problem Patterns and Gnarkats.…

  • Preview: Borders

    February 27, 2020 - By 

    If you’ve caught only a fleeting second of the visuals accompanying the music of Borders, you’ll know that it carries with it a huge weight of visual import. Spanning symphonic ambience and widescreen electronica, the record – which scooped last year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize – was a remarkably filmic meeting of the minds from two of the country’s most innovative artists, Ryan Vail and Eoin O’Callaghan AKA Elma Orkestra. It checks out, then, that such a naturally scopic, wonderfully-wrought statement on belonging and the universal power of nature and our place within it would translate well to the documentary format.…

  • Monday Mixtape: Gender Chores

    February 24, 2020 - By 

    From Mitski and Kitt Philippa to Lucy Dacus and Maija Sofia, Belfast punk trio Gender Chores wax lyrical about some of their all-time favourite tracks. Photo by Chris McCann Kitt Philippa – ’68 2/4′ Sam: This is the closing track of Kitt’s incredible first album, and it’s my favourite one on there. It has a real steady, sure pulse that supports the refrain “Keep me going ’til the morning light”. Its gravitational pull allows the swirling arrangements of woodwind and piano to orbit out into the distance and then be gently guided back to the forefront which beautifully reinforces the…

  • Brilliant Corners 2020

    February 20, 2020 - By 

    A remarkably consistent, ever-rewarding peak of the Irish festival calendar over the last eight years, Brilliant Corners can lay claim to being the island’s most carefully-curated jazz festival. Packing out (all being well) a mélange of Belfast’s finest venues and bars – both big and small – from February 27 to March 8, this year’s bill is a suitably essential affair. Curated, as ever, by the clued-in heads at Moving on Music, acts and events as mottled as the Mercury Prize-nominated Dinosaur, Athens, Georgia trailblazers Kenosha Kid, the always compelling Joseph Leighton Quartet, Wood River and the downright unmissable Parker/Niblock/Sanders will take over the likes…

  • Bright Eyes Set For First Irish Show in 18 Years

    February 18, 2020 - By 

    Bright Eyes are set to play their first Irish show in 18 years. Thanks to Selective Memory, the Conor Oberst-fronted Omaha indie folk band will play Dublin’s Vicar Street on Friday, September 4th. The show is the latest live date to be announced from the band following a 9-year hiatus. Tickets cost €37.50 standing and €42.50 seated. They go on sale at 9am on Friday, February 21st.

  • Other Voices Ballina 2020

    February 10, 2020 - By 

    With just over three weeks to go, the final acts for this year’s Other Voices Ballina have been announced. Returning to the Co. Mayo town across February 28-29, the festival will welcome David Gray, Kildare’s JYellowl, Soda Blonde, JC Stewart and The Howl & The Hum. Joining the likes of previously announced acts including Elbow and Jesca Hoop, the acts will perform within the 225-year-old walls of St. Michael’s Church over the two days and nights. Beyond the church is the Other Voices Ballina music trail, featuring Irish acts including Joel Harkin, Murli, Shookrah, The Mary Wallopers and Squarehead. Check out…

  • Knockanstockan Says “Goodbye for now, but not for good”

    February 9, 2020 - By 

    More than simply a highlight of the summer festival over the last 13 years, Knockanstockan has become synonymous with celebrating first-rate independent Irish music. Which is why news of the festival’s decision to go on hiatus this year, at the very least, will come as sad news for many. In a statement titled “goodbye for now, but not for good”, organisers of the Co. Wicklow festival said, “The Christmas of the Summer, the AGM of the craic, Electric Picnic on the dole, call it what you like there’s no denying that there is magic in those hills and there’s a decade-plus of…