• Monday Mixtape: The Bonk

    March 2, 2020 - By 

    The Bonk recently released hypnotic garage psych-jazz single ‘May Feign‘. Spanning primitive computer music to postmodern art rock, frontman (and former O Emperor member) Philip Christie takes us through some recent key influences. “These are a few tunes that I have been coming back to over the last while. Turns out I haven’t made it past the late seventies. I am not with it.” Annette Peacock – I’m The One I came across Annette Peacock’s music two or three years ago and since then it has been something I’ve come back to over and over. There is a lovely playfulness in the…

  • 10 for ’20: Rising Damp

    February 28, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of 10 for ’20 – our feature looking at ten Irish acts we’re sure are set to do great things in 2020 and beyond – Eoin Murray profiles genre-warping musician and visual artist Michelle Doyle aka Rising Damp. Photo by Peter O’Hanlon One of the Irish undergrowth’s most febrile live acts, Rising Damp, makes music to be shook to. We first heard her at Banger Cliff, on the Sunday of Open Ear 2019, when she played an appropriately head-scrambling live set of ravey electronic punk and EBM. The Dublin artist’s effect-soaked howls and propulsive rhythms injected…

  • Preview: Borders

    February 27, 2020 - By 

    If you’ve caught only a fleeting second of the visuals accompanying the music of Borders, you’ll know that it carries with it a huge weight of visual import. Spanning symphonic ambience and widescreen electronica, the record – which scooped last year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize – was a remarkably filmic meeting of the minds from two of the country’s most innovative artists, Ryan Vail and Eoin O’Callaghan AKA Elma Orkestra. It checks out, then, that such a naturally scopic, wonderfully-wrought statement on belonging and the universal power of nature and our place within it would translate well to the documentary format.…

  • Monday Mixtape: Gender Chores

    February 24, 2020 - By 

    From Mitski and Kitt Philippa to Lucy Dacus and Maija Sofia, Belfast punk trio Gender Chores wax lyrical about some of their all-time favourite tracks. Photo by Chris McCann Kitt Philippa – ’68 2/4′ Sam: This is the closing track of Kitt’s incredible first album, and it’s my favourite one on there. It has a real steady, sure pulse that supports the refrain “Keep me going ’til the morning light”. Its gravitational pull allows the swirling arrangements of woodwind and piano to orbit out into the distance and then be gently guided back to the forefront which beautifully reinforces the…

  • 10 for ’20: Denise Chaila

    February 18, 2020 - By 

    In the latest installment of 10 for ’20, Kelly Doherty tips Limerick-based Zambian-Irish rapper and poet Denise Chaila for huge things in 2020 and beyond. Photo by Tara Thomas Few Irish artists are swimming as smoothly in a wave of excitement and anticipation as Denise Chaila. The rapper and poet, despite having only two solo singles to her name, has been turning heads across live venues and major publications for the last couple of years. Winning herself a cover spot on the Irish Times’ 50 People To Watch in 2020, a celebrity fan in BBC Radio 6’s Cillian Murphy and…

  • For The Love of Music: An Interview with Andrew Weatherall

    February 17, 2020 - By 

    There simply was no one quite like Andrew Weatherall. One of the most respected selectors, prolific producers and legendary gentlemen in the game, the announcement of his death at the age of 56 has ruptured the music world. Capturing the very essence of the man – his abundant charm and unending devotion for music – we’re pleased (and yet, of course, sad) to share this previously unpublished interview with the man himself from 2015. In it, you can trace the makings of someone who, more than most, could always effortlessly transform a potentially great night into something positively unforgettable. Words by Chris Jones How…

  • Infinitesimal Hinge: In The Fold

    February 17, 2020 - By 

    In a 2016 interview the composer and saxophonist Matana Roberts asks, “Where is the new language for how we talk about difference?” Sceptical about current protest movements’ uncritical resurrections of previous vocabularies of struggle – which, in their reliance upon dualisms of black and white, us and them, reinforce the structural underpinnings of three decades of culture warring that led, quite logically, to brexit, Trump, Bolsonaro, and other demagogues around the world whose only overtures are ones of blame and resentment – Roberts’ suggestion is that only replicating older articulations of opposition dulls our ability to construct a language fit…

  • Monday Mixtape: Strange New Places

    February 17, 2020 - By 

    Including almost certainly the greatest pop song ever written, fast-rising Belfast five-piece Strange New Places reveal some of their all-time favourite songs. Ash Loyalty Festers – Onsind A haunting exploration of a society abandoned by a racist upper class and a life framed by the failures of nationalism, this song builds its message with beauty and power. Topped off with an overdub of political analysis by Akala, this track is everything folk-punk should be. Your New Old Apartment- Signals Midwest, Sincere Engineer This track is so affecting, so sad, hopeful and sincere, that for many days straight I listened to…

  • Track-by-Track: Arborist – A Northern View

    February 10, 2020 - By 

    Released last week, A Northern View cements Mark McCambridge aka Arborist’s rep as one of the country’s most distinctive songwriting voices. Whether you look to opener ‘A Stranger Heart’, the sublime ‘Here Comes The Devil’ or, in fact, any one of the album’s eleven carefully-crafted tales, it’s a filler-free feat of mottled, forward-pushing folk-pop from the Belfast-based artist. Let’s go one further: for our money, it’s the Irish album of the year so far. Ahead of its official launch at the Menagerie in Belfast on February 28th, McCambridge gives us generous track-by-track breakdown of the release below. A Northern View by arborist A…

  • Monday Mixtape: Cherym

    February 10, 2020 - By 

    From Pixies to Lana Del Rey, Hannah Richardson, Nyree Porter and Alannagh Doherty aka Derry pop-rock trailblazers Cherym take us on a guided tour of their all-time favourite songs. Photo by Ciara McMullan Hannah Charly Bliss – Black Hole Charly Bliss are ultimately my favourite band. This was the first song I heard of theirs. I love how Evas sugary sweet vocals are complimented by the fuzziness of the guitars. The music video for this is everything you expect it to be, full of colour and glitter. Literally everything I have ever loved in a band. Tancred – Sell My Head…