• Rave New World (26/6)

    June 26, 2015 - By 

    Antoin Lindsay and Aidan Hanratty deliver the lowdown on all the very best electronic gigs, tracks, mixes and releases of the week. GIGS Celtronic present Derrick May, Clark, Francesco Tristiano, Objekt and The Cyclist at St. Columb’s Hall, Derry Saturday, June 27 Probably the most ridiculous lineup Celtronic, or Derry, has ever witnessed is tomorrow. Derrick May is the closest thing to a deity in techno. Warp’s Clarke has been smashing it for ages and is currently releasing his best material for years. Francesco Tristiano is a classically trained pianist who plays house and techno whose repertoire includes as absolutely stunning version of…

  • Track Record: Gib Cassidy (Girls Names)

    June 25, 2015 - By 

    When we came up with the idea for Track Record as a feature, Gib Cassidy was top of our list. He has spent years working in all the best record shops in Dublin and even set up his very own, Elastic Witch (sadly missed) so his taste is unparalleled. We’re delighted we’ve finally pinned him down due to his busy schedule playing with Girl Names for a rummage through his records. Here, he selects the key choices representing his broad collection, from Arthur Russell to Alice Coltrane. Photos by Aaron Corr. The Slits – Cut (Island, 1979) The Slits debut album is…

  • Visual Arts Outlook (23/6)

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    In the middle of the month we have many exhibitions that are ongoing, with less openings this week, writes Mary Stevens. The BASS Belfast Artists’ Sonic Showcase Event #5 Alice Burns, Saul Rayson and Helena Hamilton, will certainly be a great night and takes place on Saturday evening at 7pm at FRAMEWERK. We also have the continuation of To Camera at the Golden Thread and Silent Valley by Liam Crichton at Platform Arts in Belfast, so if you haven’t seen them yet I would recommend a visit. Project Arts Center – Dublin Riddle of the Burial Ground 11 June -01…

  • Track Record: Laura Ann Brady

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Dublin dark ambient folk singer-songwriter Laura Ann Brady is our latest willing subject for Track Record, a regular feature in which we delve into the prized record collections of some of the country’s finest creative minds. Dublin dark ambient folk singer-songwriter Laura Ann Brady Photos by Abi Denniston. Leonard Cohen – New Skin for Old Ceremony Leonard is a hero of a man and this is one of my favourite Cohen albums, which Leonard himself calls a little gem rather than a masterpiece. There is a much bigger sound going on here than on his previous recordings. Lots of lovely woodwind…

  • Belfast Music Club Presents: Tiago

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of the latter’s absolutely free show at Belfast’s Lavery’s on Sunday at 3pm (June 28), Mark Manley from Belfast Music Club profiles globetrotting, legendary Lisbon DJ Tiago. ___ Tiago’s arrival in Belfast is very much an indulgence. I hate the term “DJ’s DJ”  as it’s so clichéd but in this instance it’s never been more true. He is one of Tim Sweeney’s favourite DJs, loved by James Murphy, and famous for his genre-spanning, marathon, seven-hour-plus DJ sets at his residency in Lux, a Lisbon club whose interior was designed by John Malkovich. Before I heard him play, everyone I…

  • A Jet Setter’s Life

    June 23, 2015 - By 

    With the dust having settled on the experience, Jeff Courtney from Dublin quartet Jet Setter gives us an insight into the band’s recent performance at Westmeath’s Life Festival. Photos by Tara Thomas. So I’m turning the key, trying to get the van to start and the poor things not making a sound – the battery is dead. We’d arrived at the studio in good time on this fine Saturday morning to collect our equipment ready for our Life Festival debut. The van had a reputation for this kind of thing and whilst it came as no surprise; it was all together…

  • Monday Mixtape: Marty Harvey (War Iron/Slomatics)

    June 22, 2015 - By 

    Ahead of supporting sludge-doom overlords Eyehategod at Belfast’s Limelight 2 on Wednesday night, Marty Harvey, drummer/vocalist with Belfast very own behemothic heavyweights War Iron (not to mention the similarly Cyclopean Slomatics) selects and talks about some of his all time favourite tracks. Photo by John Gallardo All these songs for me blend heaviness and melody. I love heavy music with big riffs, noise and walls of sound, but this has to be counteracted with space, room for the music to breath or the chords, vocal harmonies to be heard. The music I prefer to listen to has to have light…

  • Festival Preview: Open House Festival

    June 22, 2015 - By 

    This year’s Open House Festival has once again delivered a strong blend of music and arts to charm audiences throughout the month of August.  An array of top-class talent is brought to Northern Ireland during the course of the year under the Open House banner, but the annual festival is the pinnacle for its promoters; when they round-up a list of traditional and cutting edge folk artists to perform in Bangor.  Taking place from August 1-31 there will be over 100 events in 26 different locations within the seaside town.  A whole range of concerts, performances, film screenings, talks, exhibitions…

  • Deep Down South: Music and the “Cork Brand”

    June 22, 2015 - By 

    The past two weeks (for this column is now fortnightly) have been marked by two weekends of the Cork Midsummer Festival, a celebration of the arts and culture in Cork City that’s sprawled all over the city’s venues and spanned the axis of artistic endeavour. From critiques of capitalism draped in Northside accents and caffeine-fueled hyperkinesis, to the sight of a string quartet welcoming the first sunrise of the season at 5am in the company of tired but elated attendees, it’s been something else to see the extent to which the town opens its arms to the arts, and the…

  • The Hefty Fog: Naked Aggression

    June 19, 2015 - By 

    If the sight of a fully-grown man’s bare arse bathed in blue LED light has you shuddering with disgust, then you simply aren’t acculturated to the ways of Metal. If you are willing to sit through songs detailing gruesome acts of murder and purchase merchandise emblazoned with decapitated infants, but you suddenly become grossed out as a lead singer’s testicle peeps at you momentarily from its loin cloth, you’ve got a long way to go, kid. Impetuous Ritual’s performance in Dublin earlier in the month raised a few questions about the visual effect that nudity has on the overall presentation…