• 30 Years of Serious Mucking About – Gerry Anderson (1944-2014)

    August 21, 2014 - By 

    In Northern Ireland, we like to think of ourselves as an open, friendly, earthy people, bereft of the pretensions and airs that our ‘betters’ frequently display. Not for us the ‘hoity toity’ high life, instead preferring that natural warmth and good folk humour that touches the parts of the heart few other things can approach. Frankly, the truth is somewhat different (to put it mildly), but if one were able to hold up an avatar of what we consider to be the embodiment of that warmth and humour, you’d have been hard pressed to find anyone better than broadcaster and…

  • A Brief History of Post-Rock

    August 14, 2014 - By 

    Of the countless genre names that describe modern music, post-rock is probably the vaguest of those widely used. Open to generalisation, uncertainty and blind exaggeration, it has no commonly accepted definition and many acts including Tortoise and Mogwai have distanced themselves from the term. That said, much like postmodernism or the avant-garde, there remains a general consensus about the development and essential traits central to this most ambiguous of labels, currently used to describe the likes of This Will Destroy You, Mono and our very own Adebisi Shank, And So I Watch You From Afar, etc. Brian Coney attempts to trace…

  • Festival Mixtape: Hard Working Class Heroes 2014

    August 14, 2014 - By 

    Yesterday, 100+ acts were announced to playing Hard Working Class Heroes, hands down the country’s finest annual showcase of emerging, independent, homegrown talent. Spanning dozens of genres, the festival – taking place across Dublin from October 2-4 – is set to be a downright unmissable three-day event. Check out our twenty-track, decidedly eclectic Festival Mixtape for HWCH below via Spotify.

  • “We Are…” by Diarmuid Kennedy

    August 13, 2014 - By 

    Whether you’ve encountered him or not – and chances are many of you have – self-professed “unprofessional photographer” Diarmuid Kennedy has been a veritable fly-on-the-wall of Belfast music over the last couple of years. A masterfully discreet operator, he is often one of a small handful at people to brave line-ups of all-but anonymous debutantes and furtive young musicians; his photography – just like his work capturing bigger, more established local bills – providing a priceless insight into an ever-evolving, somewhat maligned but, for the most part, consistently impressive music scene. Sitting outside the Pavilion Bar on Ormeau Road – a venue in which the photographer has shot innumerable up-and-coming bands…

  • Festival Mixtape: Belsonic 2014

    August 13, 2014 - By 

    An annual fixture at Belfast’s Custom House Square, this year’s Belsonic – running from Friday, August 15 to Friday, August 22 this year – boasts some extremely big hitters. Whether you look to the likes of Nile Rodger’s Chic, Biffy Clyro or Queens of the Stone Age, globetrotting, genre-defining stadium-fillers are very much the order – with some select up-and-coming support acts thrown in for good measure. Check out the full line-up and buy tickets here. Stream our Festival Mixtape for Belsonic 2014 – featuring all fourteen confirmed acts – below.

  • Robin Williams: R.I.P.

    August 11, 2014 - By 

    We watch off as it happens again. Another familiar name that stared out from the telly or from the posters is gone. We’ve trained ourselves to observe these passings like a spectator sport, another body of work coming to end without a second thought for the families and friends left behind. We tell ourselves that people die around the world everyday in war and famine, accuse others of bandwagoneering, and in some sort of perverse way, these people are almost rationalised away as casualties of a full life, rewarded with infinite adulation. A name and a face on a wall.…

  • Frame by Frame #11: Tucan – As It Was

    August 8, 2014 - By 

    Back in June, Sligo instrumental band Tucan released easily one of the more interesting music videos from an Irish act that we’ve seen in quite some time. We called it “gloriously messed up”, concluding with “charmed or abhorred, you can’t look away.” Two months on, Colm Laverty delves further, talking to co-director Bryan Quinn about the inspiration behind and the production of the video. Hi Bryan. First off, tell us a little bit about your role on this music video. Bobby (McGlynn, co-director) started the sentence “We should just film someone performing the song, like…” “Jonathan Gunning?” I said. We made the rest of it…

  • Interview: No Age

    August 4, 2014 - By 

    Three years on from unleashing the nuanced noise of their stellar third album, Everything In Between, Los Angeles duo No Age re-affirmed their reputation as one of the most accomplished experimental punk outfits around with the masterfully minimalist An Object, released in August last year. Propelled by its candour and bare-boned urgency, it galvanised guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Allen Spunt’s effortlessly off-kilter craft, the fuzzed-out forays of old taking a back seat in favour of a markedly more inconspicuous approach. But for a twosome so apparently motivated by and inclined towards impulse, one wonders: was there much intention at the…

  • Festival Mixtape: Stendhal Festival of Art

    August 4, 2014 - By 

    Headlined by Derry punk pioneers The Undertones and Scottish indie-rock quartet Frightened Rabbit (above), Stendhal Festival of Art returns to the wonderfully scenic Roe Valley this weekend for two days of music, art, theatre, comedy and poetry. With tickets still available to purchase via the official website here, we’ve compiled a ten-track playlist featuring some our must-see acts to catch at the festival – everyone from Malojian and Go Wolf to Making Monsters and Ciaran Lavery.

  • A Guide to the Cathedral Quarter – Part III

    August 1, 2014 - By 

    Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter has become a hub for culture in Northern Ireland in recent years. Once considered a dark and dodgy area of town, the Cathedral Quarter has been completely rejuvenated in recent years alongside the inauguration of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival fifteen years ago. One of the best things about the Cathedral Quarter is that there are so many venues in such a small area of land – perfect for boosting tourism and the local economy. Taking a quick dander around the quarter you’re sure to pass several stunning landmarks whether it be theatres, bars and pubs, or…