• Copy of a Copy of a: A Strange Kind of Flattery With Lilys

    March 2, 2017 - By 

    There’s a moment on Lilys’ 1996 album Better Can’t Make Your Life Better, where you find yourself wondering “What exactly am I listening to?” It happens on the first track. For a first-time listener, it’s bewildering, a mish-mash of 60s jangle, R&B (in the old use of the term), and garage band scuzz. It sounds like the Monkees jamming with The Who on Jupiter. Which is a compliment, obviously. But if you’d been at all familiar with the Washington D.C. band, then it really was a curveball. Over the course of two well-received but obscure albums, Lilys had established themselves…

  • Home Suite Home: An Interview with Peter Wilson AKA Duke Special

    March 2, 2017 - By 

    Having recently successfully completed a Crowdfunder campaign to ensure its release, Peter Wilson AKA Duke Special and Ulaid recorded their collaborative show The Belfast Suite across two nights at Analogue Catalogue Recording Studio in Rathfriland, Co. Down. Eimear Hurley catches up with Wilson to delve deeper into the project, as well as his own speckled, genre-spanning career to date. Over the course of your career to date you’ve been part of many diverse and fruitful collaborations. What is it that sparks your interest in collaborating with a particular artist? And what do you think makes a successful artistic partnership? I guess…

  • What’s Happenin’ wi’ TOUTS? An Interview With Derry’s Young Punks

    March 1, 2017 - By 

    Derry three-piece TOUTS have wasted little time transitioning from a cover band to an uncompromising punk rock band in the past year.  Having just wrapped up in the studio, they have two E.P.’s tucked in their back pocket, with the first set for release in April*. After meeting at the Brandywell, home of Derry City F.C., the line-up has changed over time, with the current trio consisting of Matthew (singer/guitarist), Luke (bassist), and Jason (drummer).  As a band, their taste has evolved, from mod and pub rock beginnings, to punk rock usurping all other influences. They appear to have the…

  • Playlist: 12 Irish Acts at SXSW 2017

    February 28, 2017 - By 

    As positively hectic as any festival on the face of the globe, SXSW has long been established as a veritable cornucopia of film, music and interactive media from far and very wide. And with festivals of much smaller scale: where the excess of choice becomes something of a burden, planning ahead and knocking up a makeshift “must-see” guide is next to obligatory to ensure FOMO doesn’t become an all-consuming spectre during your festival stay. Just as important is getting some essential listening in before heading off in said sensory abyss. So if you’re SXSW-bound this year and want to check out some…

  • Track Record: Craig McCloskey (Hornets/Destriers)

    February 28, 2017 - By 

    Craig McCloskey from Belfast bands Hornets and Destriers selects and waxes (ahem) lyrical about some of his most prized records, including Chelsea Wolfe, Baptists, Code Orange Kids, The Chariot and Booker T. & The M.G.’s. Photos by Dee McEvoy. Hornets release their new album, Witch Hunt, on 12″ coloured vinyl and digital download in April. Chelsea Wolfe – Apokalypsis Chelsea Wolfe is relatively huge now, what with her song used in one of the Game of Thrones trailers, but I still prefer her older records that sound way less electronic/produced and a bit more folk-ey.  I love the intro track on this record,…

  • SPECTRUM 2017: An Interview with IMC and HomeBeat

    February 23, 2017 - By 

    Presented by Improvised Music Company in association with Note Productions and HomeBeat, SPECTRUM is a new festival experience for fans of innovative music-making. Set to present three days of stimulating music “at the creative intersection where jazz, contemporary, rock and electronic music collide”, the Dublin festival – which runs from March 10-12 at Whelans and The Opium Rooms on Wexford St, Dublin – will have a focus on the live and improvised, complimented by a compelling programme of talks. In the first of a two-part feature, Brian Coney chats to Kenneth Killen (director of Improvised Music Company) and Emmet Condon of…

  • A Labour of Love: An Interview With New Pope

    February 15, 2017 - By 

    You mightn’t immediately peg David Boland AKA New Pope, as a “degenerate romantic”, but when delving into his expanding back catalogue, there’s enough substance of the sort to confirm that the Galway-based musician has had dealings with nostalgia far more cogent than his youth might suggest. His is a craft indebted to memory; the bittersweet, the humorous, and the kind that inherently shapes one’s outlook – for better and, at times, for worse. To hear it on record is to acknowledge the confessional nature of Boland’s songwriting; we become willingly and unapologetically complicit in his experiences – an increasingly rewarding transaction…

  • Pre-Tour Preamble: Vasa & Body Hound

    February 7, 2017 - By 

    Given our island’s reputation, in what now seems to be acknowledged as ‘the days of yore’, for independently successful rock bands of math and post-prefixed inclinations, it makes sense that mainland acts would flex their considerable muscles on our shores. Our so-called ‘island tax’ often extends to a limitation on shows from any less than stadium-ready musical artists and their ilk, but there’s a growing number of thoughtful and decent promoters out there working in synchronicity – many of whom we hope to feature in coming months – with the likes of Belfast’s Solid Choice Industries, Galway’s FEAST, Dublin’s Venture Presents joining forces, uniting the corners of…

  • Primer: ADW

    February 6, 2017 - By 

    In this instalment of Primer street artist ADW chats about his recent projects & inspirations. Photos and interview by Mark Earley. Hi ADW, how’s tricks? Hiya! I’m great thanks, flying high and life couldn’t be better! Can you tell us about your current work? Last November I completed a new body of work which was presented in the solo exhibition BORN TO CREATE and, as I speak, I’ve just stepped off site from after a commission in the 3Arena, in their Premium Lounge no less. It’s been a hectic few months, but loving every minute. BORN TO CREATE, which was you 4th…

  • 17 For ’17: DIE HEXEN

    February 3, 2017 - By 

    Extending from the north of Ireland to the east of Asia, the scope of DIE HEXEN – spatially, temporally, and ideologically – is vast and fascinating, executed in a fashion that marks this enigma of performance art apart from any other musician in the country. DIE HEXEN defies definition or categorisation, an identity and an idea constantly in flux. It’s a marriage of western and eastern concepts; of the unique post-World War II Japanese art theatre, Butoh, the dance of darkness; of myriad twentieth century cinematic, musical and pop-cultural influences; of personal experience and wilful passion. We’ve had glimpses of…