• The Fifth Beatle: Sir George Martin (1926-2016)

    March 9, 2016 - By 

    Like them or loathe them, The Beatles are the bedrock of popular culture. No other band has exerted the kind of influence and hold over music, and as avatars of cultural change in the decade where everything changed, they led the charge. But would any of it have happened if it wasn’t for Sir George Martin? Unlikely. The Fab Four had the talent, the ideas, and the drive, but it was George Martin who honed them into the force they became. Think of him as like a sculptor, with Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr as the raw material from which…

  • Jessica Hopper Keynote @ Women’s Work

    March 9, 2016 - By 

    As part of Women’s Work NI, a week long festival based around International Women’s Day and highlighting the valuable work women contribute to the music industry, current editorial director of MTV Jessica Hopper gave a rousing keynote speech to a crowded Oh Yeah! Centre. The crux of the legendary journalist/editor’s speech was that the so far rather circuitous conversation around women in the industry had only gained momentum recently: we are finally being heard. She outlined how how she got started (a punk fanzine inspired by Babes In Toyland), which brought her neatly to her other point: why is ‘fangirl’…

  • Rave New World (04/03)

    March 4, 2016 - By 

    Antoin Lindsay and Aidan Hanratty return for their latest look at the very best electronic gigs, tracks and mixes of the week. Gigs Lower Your Expectations #5: Barry Redsetta + Frawl at The Underbelly, Limerick Saturday 5 March LYE continues its run of great guests, with Major Problems boss Barry Redsetta travelling to Limerick tomorrow night. He’s famed as a warmup DJ, but here he’ll be shining brightly. He’s got quite the collection, with unreleased goodies to boot (MPR010 is killer) – check out this sweet mix he did last year for proof. Local man Frawl is on support, fresh from the…

  • Playlist: Choice Music Prize 2016

    March 3, 2016 - By 

    With The Gloaming proving well-deserved victors last time round, tonight’s Choice Music Prize is – as has almost always been the case with the award – an extremely tough one to call. Selected by an Irish industry judging panel, the following albums – perfectly diverse in score and vision – will all compete to walk away with the prize at Vicar Street later today. Girl Band – Holding Hands with Jamie (Rough Trade) HamsandwicH – Stories From The Surface (Route 109A Records) Gavin James – Bitter Pill (Warner Music Ireland) Jape – This Chemical Sea (Faction Records) Le Galaxie – Le Club (Universal Music…

  • Bookmark: Frankie Gaffney

    March 2, 2016 - By 

    In this installment of Bookmark, we chat to Dublin author Frankie Gaffney about the books that have made the biggest impression on his life thus far. Photos by Pedro Giaquinto. I’ve split my list into fiction and non-fiction. Non-fiction tends to get neglected, but it influences my writing every bit as much as fiction. Non-Fiction A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson This book gently and briefly explains what’s currently known about the universe: the very basics of the cosmos, our planet, and the life that inhabits it. For some reason they don’t really teach you the broad…

  • Track Record: Anderson

    March 2, 2016 - By 

    In this installment of Track Record, we head over to the home studio of Dublin based singer songwriter Anderson, while he selects the records which have made a huge impact on his life from The Beatles to Joni Mitchell. Photos by Tara Thomas. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band This record is redolent of my childhood, it has been a sturdy vessel for so many of my earliest and happiest memories. As a musician the way I listen to records has changed and become much more analytical, listening to this record now only enhances my regard for…

  • Monday Mixtape: Steven Agnew

    February 29, 2016 - By 

    Following on from his two-part TTA interview, Green Party of Northern Ireland leader Steven Agnew selects and talks about some of his all-time favourite songs, featuring Yo La Tengo, Hot Snakes, Neutral Milk Hotel and Slint. Go here and here for Stevie Lennox’s interview with Agnew. “I’m one of those people who laments technology. I miss making mixtapes. I wouldn’t even have the equipment to make or play it on anymore, but I was a big fan. High Fidelity was always one of my favourite books – the rules of making mixtapes. I’ve never sat down to think about it,…

  • Rave New World (26/02)

    February 26, 2016 - By 

    Antoin’s away in Berlin, so here Aidan Hanratty returns for his latest look at the very best electronic gigs, tracks and mixes of the week. Gigs Move D & Shanti Celeste at Opium Rooms, Dublin Friday 26 February  Craig David is sold out, so I guess this will have to do. The ageless Move D continues to thrive, most recently showcasing his considerable talents alongside Jordan GCZ on their Live In Seattle album for Further Records. A relative newcomer then by comparison, Shanti Celeste has moved from under-the-radar releases on Brstl and Idle Hands to a killer cut with Funkineven and…

  • Bookmark: Kevin Curran

    February 23, 2016 - By 

    In this installment of Bookmark, Dublin author Kevin Curran selects and talks about some of his favourite novels, featuring the likes of Saul Bellow, Don DeLillo and F Scott Fitzgerald. Curran has just recently published his second novel Citizens. Photos by Pedro Giaquinto. James Kelman  – A Disaffection A brilliant, if under-appreciated writer brings us a ground-breaking use of vernacular language that would later be made famous by Irvine Welsh. Not as brash as Welsh, but more gritty and stylistically accomplished, A Disaffection is a powerful book about twenty-something despair and isolation in a world that doesn’t care. Saul Bellow –…

  • Track Record: Paul G Smyth

    February 21, 2016 - By 

    In the latest installment of Track Record, Dublin pianist and Jimmy Cake member Paul G Smyth handpicks a selection of records that have left an indelible imprint on his music and life, including Tangerine Dream, Derek Bailey and Talk Talk. Photos by Aidan Kelly Murphy. Evan Parker – Saxophone Solos This album essentially ruined my life. First stumbled upon when I used to hoover up the contents of the Ilac Centre Library’s audio section as a teenager, using every family member’s cards every Saturday, and coming home on the bus with unknowns from every section. I hated it. Passionately. It…