• Spilt Milk Announce Fringe Programme

    November 9, 2021 - By 

    With under two weeks to go to this year’s festival, Sligo’s Spilt Milk have announced details of its fringe programme. As well as shows by Silverbacks, Rising Damp, Alannah Thornburgh and many more throughout the town across the weekend of 19-21 November, this year’s programme features a host of wonderfully eclectic indoor and outdoor events, installations, screenings and workshops. Thursday, 18th November sees the launch of Idir, an audio trail and zine in which musicians, writers, and artists will guide attendees on a walk to the outskirts of Sligo, taking in sights and sounds not often noticed by tourists or…

  • Beach House Set For Dublin Return

    November 9, 2021 - By 

    Beach House will play Dublin next year. The Baltimore dream-pop duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally will mark their return to the city with a show at the National Stadium on Saturday, May 21 2022. Tickets go on sale next Friday, November 19 at 10am. It will be the duo’s ninth Dublin show to date, and their first since playing Vicar Street back in 2018. Coinciding with the news is the announcement of the band’s forthcoming eigth album, Once Twice Melody. An 18-song double album, it will be released in four “chapters” over the next four months. Chapter One lands tonight…

  • Belfast Becomes a UNESCO City of Music

    November 8, 2021 - By 

    Belfast has become UNESCO City of Music. The city has been awarded the prestigious City of Music title, which recognises its rich musical heritage, as well as the importance of music to its future. It’s only the third city in the UK to be awarded the coveted status. Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Kate Nicholl, said: “We are thrilled and honoured that Belfast has been bestowed the prestigious UNESCO City of Music title and to have Gary Lightbody and Hannah Peel on board as official patrons. This is wonderful news for Belfast! “Belfast is proud of its music culture. Creativity…

  • Other Voices to Make Dingle Return

    November 4, 2021 - By 

    Other Voices will return to Dingle later this month. Celebrating its twentieth year, the Irish music institution will return for a four-day series of live shows in West Kerry across November 25-28th. Taking place both online and in-person at the Church of St James and the IMRO Other Room, Other Voices Twenty/Fiche Bliain Ag Fás will feature performances by the likes of John Grant, Fontaines D.C., Kay Young, Houseplants and Gemma Dunleavy. With many more acts are to be announced, all of these sets will be streamed live to venues throughout Dingle and will also be available to view free of…

  • Grouper Set For Dublin’s National Concert Hall

    November 3, 2021 - By 

    The National Concert Hall will play host to one of music’s most singular voices next year. Thanks to Foggy Notions, Grouper – the main project of Californian musician Liz Harris – will play the Dublin venue on Tuesday, April 12th 2022. In support of her recently-released 12th full-length, Shade, the date marks Grouper’s first show in the city since playing Unitarian Church in 2012. Tickets are from €28.50 and go on sale on Friday, 5th November at 10 am. Stream Shade in full below. Shade by Grouper

  • CMAT Announces Irish Dates & Debut Album, Releases ‘No More Virgos’

    October 27, 2021 - By 

    The day is here at last: CMAT has announced details of her debut album. Having swiftly established herself as short of a revelation over the last couple of years, the Dublin-based artist will release If My Wife New I’d Be Dead via AWAL Recordings on February 25th, 2022. Including previously-released singles including ‘I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby!’ and ‘I Don’t Really Care For You,’ news of the 12-track album comes accompanied by the release of new single ‘No More Virgos’. In textbook CMAT fashion, it’s forward-pushing, earworming pop at its very best. “I’m the kind of girl who dates the same person…

  • Watch: M(h)aol – No One Ever Talks To Us

    October 27, 2021 - By 

    Year in, year out, the imminence of Samhain tends to bring about some … varying seasonal content. Thankfully, there are always exceptions to that rule. Taken from their forthcoming debut EP, Gender Studies, the video for ‘No One Ever Talks To Us’ by M(h)aol depicts women in scenes of horror, from Barbara Creed’s The Monstrous Feminine and Megan Fox’s Jennifer’s Body, to Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror. But it’s far from a kneejerk tie-in to mark the time of the year from the band, who are based between Dublin, Cork, London and Bristol. A fraught meld of buzz-saw textures, bobbing rhythms and Róisín Nic…

  • Premiere: Boyfrens – Almost Live in Tengu

    October 21, 2021 - By 

    Dublin electro-pop artist Jack Hevey ventured out as Boyfrens just before the world began to shut down early last year. As a result – and no thanks to a whole heap of governmental incompetence as of late – he has yet had a chance to air his material to a real-world audience. With that reality firmly in mind, Hevey teamed up with Owen Costello of Substance Media to produce a 20-minute live performance at Dublin venue Tengu in early summer this year. Performing to an incredibly intimate audience of 10, the set was brought to life via director of photography Sean…

  • Premiere: Ordnance Survey – Vico Road, July 1984

    October 19, 2021 - By 

    As one of the island’s most forward-pushing electronic propositions, Neil O’Connor has long intrigued and challenged as an artist over the years. It’s something that comes into sharp focus in his guise as Ordnance Survey. Next month, O’Connor unveils Field Work, a new LP via Scintilla Recordings. Produced mostly at his home in Drumcondra, Dublin, the album was born out of the use of field recordings made in and around the capital, as well as clips from television archives, the Dart, bicycles and vocal samples from Kerry 40 years ago. A simmering blend of understated synth, samples, piano and found sound,…

  • NI Music Prize Set For Ulster Hall

    October 19, 2021 - By 

    This year’s Northern Ireland Music Prize will return to Belfast’s Ulster Hall next month. Due to COVID-19, last year’s event was broadcast online. Now, due to an easing of restrictions, the annual prize will return to the iconic venue on Wednesday, November 17. “It has been a long and challenging twelve months for musicians,” said Charlotte Dryden of the Oh Yeah Music Centre, organisers of the annual award. “That is why this year is such an important coming together, not just to celebrate the great wealth of talent that has produced world-class records throughout the pandemic, but also to thank and let…