• Classic Album: The World of Twist – Quality Street

    March 12, 2014 - By 

    The World of Twist were, and are, an enigma, wrapped in a conundrum, cocooned in carpet off-cuts and bundled out of a burning warehouse window onto a waiting barge. I knew nothing about them when I first fell in love with them twenty years ago and I know less than that now, the intervening decades having been something of a blur and, let’s face it, I’m not getting any younger. The Twist’s singer Tony Ogden isn’t getting any older either, as he died several years ago. Drummer Nick Sanderson has also passed on. But this is no “curse of the…

  • Frame by Frame #005: Oh Volcano – Oceans

    March 7, 2014 - By 

    In the fifth installment of Frame By Frame – a regular feature looking at the production, concepts behind and creators of local music videos – Belfast-based filmmaker and musician Colm Laverty talks to fellow jack-of-all-trades Edward F Butler about his recent video for ‘Oceans’ by Owen and Enda Strathern AKA Oh Volcano. First off, tell us a little bit about your role on this music video. I mainly work in post production, but for this, it was a collage of all sorts. I worked on this short film with a team in Lithuania, no one really wanted the film, so…

  • Getting re-acquainted: ZZ Top – Sharp Dressed Man (1983)

    March 4, 2014 - By 

    Like a punch in the face, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ explodes out of the speakers, a sleek, streamlined beast of a song, riding a pulsating electric beat into the horizon. Never mind the suits, the beards, and the cool cars, ZZ Top’s legacy to popular music is making hard rock that you can dance to. Trying to sound ‘modern’ is the kiss of death, but when you do it as good as this, you’re onto a winner. Eliminator, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’s parent album, kinda came out of nowhere. ZZ Top had been a very successful boogie-rock band, churning out blues riffs,…

  • Choice Cuts: The Best Tracks of… February

    March 3, 2014 - By 

    In his latest review of the very best music released in the month just passed, the altogether audibly-attuned Aaron Hamilton bestows up our very ears some exceptional tracks from the likes of Sun Kil Moon, Lydia Loveless (pictured) and the behemothic pairing of Sunn O))) & Ulver. Banks – Brain (Harvest) Since her breakthrough last year, Banks has been one of the more promising acts in the annual flurry of year-end nominations and awards. Brain is a sardonic, down tempo collaboration with producer Schlomo, and the pairing works to the benefit of both of them – Banks sounds years more mature…

  • Frame by Frame #004: VerseChorusVerse – No More Years

    February 27, 2014 - By 

    In the fourth installment of Frame by Frame – a feature looking at the production of Irish music videos from the perspective of their creators – Colm Laverty catches up with Adrian Rowe and Emma Louise Dodds from Industrious Dark about their recent video for ‘No More Years’ by singer-songwriter Tony Wright AKA VerseChorusVerse. First off, tell us a little bit about each of your roles on this music video. We are Industrious Dark – Adrian Rowe and Emma Louise Dodds. We were the creators/directors of the video. In a sentence, what sets ‘No More Years’ apart from other Northern Irish…

  • 20 Years of Being Brave – How Marillion Crawled Back From Obscurity

    February 20, 2014 - By 

    Twenty years ago, a record called Brave hit number ten on the UK album chart. It was by a band who had best been known for ‘Kayleigh’, a hit single they’d had nine years earlier, fronted by a different singer. It’s all ancient history now, but the band are still going, and whilst they’re still largely known for that hit single, the hardcore fans have been celebrating the Brave anniversary with much fanfare, a veritable army of fans rhapsodising over the raw, emotive music contained within the album. But how can a band who are arguably remembered for one 29…

  • Frame by Frame #003: Feet For Wings – Cathedral St

    February 17, 2014 - By 

    Having just unveiled the stunning yet subtle video for their new single single, ‘Cathedral St’, Belfast acoustic-folk band Feet For Wings talk to Colm Laverty about its production, the thematic and inspirational impetus behind its creation and their individual thoughts on music videos and the making thereof. Warning: contains a single reference to Miley Cyrus. Proceed at your peril. First off, tell us a little bit about each of your roles on this music video. Dave: The whole band contributed in finding the location to shoot the performance and generally sort things like dates, gear etc out. Apart from that…

  • Classic Album: Bark Psychosis – Hex

    February 14, 2014 - By 

    You’re familiar with post-rock, right? Long, usually instrumental tracks that start off quiet and pretty, build slowly then BOOM – erupt into cathartic crescendo, before tailing off with a swooning little coda. That’s post-rock. Beautiful and yes, intense, but formulaic; “alternative” muzak safe enough to accompany football highlights, teen melodramas and Sir David Attenborough whispering feverishly over infra-red footage of rutting beasts. Let’s rewind back to 1994. Mojo hack (and subsequent alt-music historian) Simon Reynolds slips the promo from a new British band into his stereo and presses play. The sounds which ooze from his speakers are alien – an…

  • Classic Album: The Smiths (1984)

    February 13, 2014 - By 

    Hindsight is a wonderful thing. After 30 years of disappointments, you can look back and see exactly what started it all, throwing all amount of history and emotional baggage on top of it to make some kind of distorted, grotesque picture of what it was like. But when you sit down to listen to The Smiths‘ debut album, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this month, you’d be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about. For an album that supposedly changed everything, it’s so damn ordinary. The Smiths’ debut had a tortured genesis, involving betrayal, back room deals, and…

  • Hardwell and the Defence of Dance

    February 12, 2014 - By 

    To read the hysterical coverage following last week’s Hardwell concert, you’d think that end times were upon us: thousands of feral, drug-abusing teenagers on the rampage with the Dutch DJ as their dark prince. The debate over the next couple of days was depressingly predictable, with fingers pointed at dance music, drugs and “prinking”, or pre-drinking – a catchy new name for a custom as old as the hills. Hardwell’s Edinburgh show was even cancelled as a frankly bizarre precaution. But there’s no need to panic. This was a 16+ event featuring a globally successful dance music star, in a…