• Classic Album: Can – Future Days

    August 13, 2015 - By 

    This may seem a pretentious review. It probably is.  I may well be using words like “oneiric”*, a word that spell-check tells me doesn’t exist. This is to be expected: this is a Can record I’m talking about, the band I‘m most likely to wax lyrical about, especially when they’re at their least lyrical. This is Future Days, Can at their most impressionistic, most painterly, least literal. Moving on from the pop certainties of Ege Bamyasi, (‘Spoon’, adopted as the theme tune for a detective series, had been an actual chart hit in Germany!) the band decided to break free…

  • Midweek Mixtape: Short Songs

    August 12, 2015 - By 

    Despite being the accepted standard for radio play etc., sometimes there’s something unsatisfactory about the three-to-four minute pop song. It can, on occasion, feel like one idea has been dragged out a bit longer than it should have been, with superfluous guitar solos, incongruous bridges and unnecessary third verses, simply because it’s deemed that anything below this length is unacceptable. The best musicians, though, have the confidence and self awareness to keep things brief if they can say all they need to say in one or two minutes (or even less). Such tracks can easily be mistaken for throwaways, but…

  • Premiere: Linebacker Dirge – Livia/Motion Parallax

    August 11, 2015 - By 

    Co. Down singer-songwriter Jason Gibson is an artist who thrives on collaboration. Formed back in 2005, his project Linebacker Dirge has seen him write and record with the likes of A Plastic Rose’s Ian McHugh, A Northern Light’s Colm Laverty and James Bruce of Kasper Rosa/Matua Trap. Ten years on from the release of his debut, Postcards, Distance and Sleep (written and recorded with Harry Ffitch of Hello Newman over MSN Messenger, no less), Gibson’s new EP, The Worried Well, is a real re-affirmation of those early stirrings, going that bit further in driving the point (the unspoken and profound…

  • Classic Album: Gene Clark – No Other (1974)

    August 10, 2015 - By 

    Gene Clark was the Byrd who couldn’t fly. If that sounds trite (and let’s face it, it is) consider the facts. Clark was one of the original members of America’s answer to The Beatles, and whilst Roger McGuinn was the frontman of The Byrds on hit singles like ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ and ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’, it was Clark who provided the majority of their self-penned material during his tenure with the band. But, in an irony that would be delicious if it wasn’t something that happened to a living, breathing person, Gene Clark was afraid of flying. In 1965, with…

  • Rave New World (7/8)

    August 7, 2015 - By 

    Antoin Lindsay takes a look at some of the best electronic gigs, mixes, tracks and releases of the week, including Florist, Klaus and KABLAM. GIGS Beat BBQ – To The Bone EP 48 at The Treehouse [am:pm], Belfast Friday 7 August Timmy Stewart is a familiar face around Belfast, and he’ll be celebrating 20 years of DJing with parties around Belfast. Tonight, he’ll be joined by Feel My Bicep’s Hammer, Twitch and other local DJs for a free night in The Treehouse with no shortage of techno, I imagine. Tw!tch – Livity Sound Night with Peverelist & Kowton at Queens Student…

  • EP Premiere: Feather Beds – Ah Stop

    August 6, 2015 - By 

    Having just returned to Dublin following two years living in Quebec, Dublin producer Michael Orange AKA Feather Beds has hit the ground of his homeland running with Ah Stop, a stellar new EP was recorded “in the middle of a particularly gruelling and sub-zero winter in Montreal” back in February. An appendix of sorts to his debut album, The Skeletal System, which was released at the start of the year, the EP shows a self-described “marked shift in direction towards a more electronic feel and brings an introduction to the second full-length album, which is scheduled for release in 2016.” As just under…

  • Festival Mixtape: Stendhal Festival of Art

    August 6, 2015 - By 

    Hands down the best annual music and arts festival in the North of Ireland – and officially Ireland’s Best Small Festival – Stendhal Festival of Art returns to Limavady this weekend with yet another genre-spanning festival for revellers young and old. Headlined by the equally legendary Donovan and Kerbdog, this year’s outing once again features a wide-ranging slew of homegrown talent, including Ciaran Lavery, The Bonnevilles, Robyn G Shiels, GO WOLF, Rainy Boy Sleep, Hot Cops, Tucan, Katharine Philippa, Sister Ghost, Oh Volcano and more. Go here to buy tickets and stream our fifteen-track Festival Mixtape for this year’s festival below.

  • Monday Mixtape: The Watchmakers

    August 3, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of their show at Reverbnation Psych Weekender in Dublin on August 14, self-proclaimed “fusion of shimmering, mind expanding aural surrealism and neo-psych grooves” The Watchmakers give us an insight into their current listening habits and key influences. The Babe Rainbow – Secret Enchanted Broccoli Forest Australia is currently producing some of our favourite new music. Everyone know’s all about the likes of Tame Impala, Pond and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard to name but three, but The Babe Rainbow are definitely my tip to be the next ‘Ozzy’ band to get people excited. Hinds – Trippy Gum The best act we…

  • Rave New World (31/07)

    July 31, 2015 - By 

    It’s the weekend. A Bank Holiday weekend no less. So Aidan Hanratty and Antoin Lindsay deliver their weekly look at all the very best electronic gigs, tracks, mixes and releases. GIGS Belfast Music Club Present: JG Wilkes and Eamon Harkin at The Hudson Bar, Belfast Friday 31 July An absolute scorcher of a night happening at The Hudson tonight. JG Wilkes and Eamon Harkin have established themselves in two of the greatest resident DJ collectives in the world, namely Optimo and Mister Saturday Night respectively. The common ground is they’re both from Ireland, and while they’ve made their names elsewhere, they’re joining forces…

  • Live Stream: Smalltown America All-Dayer #6

    July 31, 2015 - By 

    Co-hosted with yours truly, Smalltown America records will host their grand sixth All-Dayer this evening at STA HQ in Derry this evening from 5pm. Featuring American Clay, Carnivores, Clanns, Freak’s, Lost Avenue, PigsAsPeople, Rosseau and Small Hawk Orchestral, it is set to be yet another unforgettable, riff-fuelled happening from one of the country’s finest labels. Not able to make it? Never worry. Stream the entire thing below from 5pm! Better still, we will have videos from the All-Dayer coming on the site over the next few weeks. Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream