• Another Love Story Announces First Acts

    February 14, 2023 - By 

    Another Love Story have announced the first acts to play this year’s festival. Hands down one of the island’s most wonderfully singular small festival experiences, Another Love Story returns to Killyon Manor in Co. Meath across 18th-20th August 2023. And judging by the first line-up drop, it’s set to be yet another carefully-crafted programme across three days and nights. With many more acts to be announced, today, the festival announce British techno sorcerer and psychedelic shaman James Holden, Berlin-based Peruvian producer Sofia Kourtesis, Irish trad titan Martin Hayes, Rachael Lavelle & The Glasshouse Ensemble, Theon Cross, Charlie Bones and Moving Still. Including…

  • Death Grips Set For Dublin

    February 7, 2023 - By 

    Death Grips have announced their long-awaited return, taking in a Dublin show this summer. As part of their first shows since 2019, the Californian experimental hip-hop group will play the Academy on Sunday, 18th June. It marks their first show in the city since 2016. Tickets cost €39.50 and go on sale at 10am on Friday, 10th February. Revisit a Death Grips classic below.

  • Watch: Gilla Band – Sports Day

    February 7, 2023 - By 

    Gilla Band have dropped a new single, ‘Sports Day’. The b-side to Eight Fivers – which was accompanied by the announcement of their third album Most Normal last July – it’s a slowly unfurling and suitably stifling effort from the Dublin quartet. Today, the band have also announced four more UK/EU dates in what’s shaping up to be a busy schedule in 2023.  Check those and Michael Speed’s visuals for ‘Sports Day’ below.

  • Wilco Announce Irish Shows

    February 6, 2023 - By 

    Wilco have announced two Irish shows. Courtesy of Open House Festival, the band will also play Belfast’s Mandela Hall on Wednesday, 6th September. It comes 13 years to the month from their last show with the promoters. Marking their first show in the city since playing Iveagh Gardens festival back in 2016 (revisit our gallery from the show here) the Chicago indie legends will also play 3Olympia Theatre on Friday, 8th September. Wilco last played 3Olympia Theatre back in 1999. News of the show comes hours on from the Jeff Tweedy-fronted band winning Best Historical Album for the 20th Anniversary edition of…

  • Grace Jones Announced For Beyond The Pale

    January 26, 2023 - By 

    As bona fide music legends come, Grace Jones takes some beating. Since the early ’70s, her singular brand of art pop has spanned new wave, disco, R&B, reggae and far beyond. On albums such as Nightclubbing, Living My Life and Warm Leatherette, she has been a creative force fully unto herself. This summer, the woman, the myth, the legend herself will top the bill at Ireland’s best festival at the moment, Beyond The Pale. Joining the likes of Hot Chip, Thundercat, Oneohtrix Point Never, Leftfield, Jon Hopkins and countless other acts already announced, Jones’ appearance marks her only Irish performance of the…

  • Join the Belfast Region Music Board

    January 20, 2023 - By 

    Belfast City Council has made an open call for applications to join the Belfast Region Music Board. As part of their council’s music strategy, Music Matters – a Roadmap for Belfast, the music board is being created to bring to life the city being awarded UNESCO City of Music status, helping to “embed music in all communities across the city to make music a sustainable career option for creators and people who support them”. With the hope of bringing together 15 to 20 members, the initiative is inviting expressions of interest from people in the music industry to sit on…

  • Watch: Arborist – Dreaming In Another Language

    January 19, 2023 - By 

    With his 2016 debut album, Home Burial, Mark McCambridge aka Arborist underscored his arrival as one of the island’s most singular considered songwriting voices. Four years later, A Northern View – which was Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios – doubled down on his sublimely-crafted indie Americana. In the between, McCambridge has had his head down, plotting a release worthy of continuing a story that has already sprawled out magnificent. The result is An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros, a nine-track album that we’re sure will elevate Arborist far and beyond. Produced by Matthew E White at his Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virginia, it sees the Belfast artist explore…

  • Premiere: peak hue – safe room

    January 10, 2023 - By 

    Few Irish artists have shapeshifted convincingly, or as consistently, as Phil Quinn. Over the years, the Belfast musician has offered up an abundance of first-rate sounds as – or as a member of – Charles Hurts, Gross Net, Girls Names, and Grave Goods, as well as recent collaborations with the likes of Aoife Wolf. It’s a winding and immersive path that leads very nicely to peak hue. A homophone for their initials, PQ, the new solo project’s first release, safe room, instantly hits like a clean, meditative break from the more ardent, beat-heavy post-punk they’re rightly lauded for. Ahead of the three-tracker’s release on 3rd February, its…

  • RTÉ Choice Music Prize Shortlist Revealed

    January 9, 2023 - By 

    The shortlist for the 18th annual Irish Album of the Year in association with IMRO and IRMA has been revealed, as well as the announcement of three new prizes. The nominees for the main prize are as follows: Anna Mieke – Theatre (Anna Mieke under license to Nettwerk Music Group) Aoife Nessa Frances – Protector (Partisan Records) CMAT – If My Wife New I’d Be Dead (CMATBABY) Dermot Kennedy – Sonder (Island) Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia (Partisan Records) Just Mustard – Heart Under (Partisan Records) Pillow Queens – Leave the Light On (Royal Mountain Records) Sorcha Richardson – Smiling Like An Idiot (Faction Records) The Mary Wallopers – The Mary Wallopers (The Mary Wallopers) Thumper – Delusions of…

  • Max Cooper Announces 3D/AV Irish Shows

    December 16, 2022 - By 

    Max Cooper has announced two Irish dates for next year. The audio/visual techno shapeshifter will bring his live 3D/AV show to Belfast’s Mandela Hall on 17th February and Centre Point, Dublin on 18th February. Tickets are on sale now. In a statement, the London artist said: “This tour will bring the 3D / AV show, with the immersive gauze screen that I’ve been taking with me recently – if you’d like to have a look at the technique, see the film Live from the Acropolis on YouTube or some clips from the recent Brixton Academy show on my Instagram. I’m…