• Nocturnal Animals

    November 14, 2016 - By 

    With an opening that has to be one of the most unforgettable movie experiences that you’ll ever see, writer/director Tom Ford (A Single Man) has created a dark, complex and thought-provoking drama, that transcends genres in a stylishly original fashion, while touching on some hard-hitting issues that are highly relevant in today’s image and success-obsessed society. Amy Adams (The Master) stars as an accomplished artist, who has just received a book manuscript in the post from her ex-husband, Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), who is an aspiring novelist. With a dedication to her at the beginning, Adam’s character immediately starts to…

  • Bayonne – Primitives

    November 14, 2016 - By 

    There is a delicate, reserved complexity in the opening of Austin, Texas multi-instrumentalist Roger Seller’s third album Primitives. The LP, which was originally released in 2014 was recently re-issued on Mom + Pop Music to coincide with Seller’s newly adopted pseudonym, Bayonne. As the intro builds with cascading layers and loops of guitars, keys and vocals, the rhythm manages to be dizzyingly off-kilter while maintaining a enthralling punch. And that is by and large how the album plays out. It is an LP of measured technicality, celestial melody and an infectious pulse. While its perfectly polished production and careful restraint may prevent it from being…

  • Irish Tour: Jimmy Eat World

    November 16, 2016 - By 

    Arizona alt-rock legends Jimmy Eat World live at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre and Belfast’s Limelight 1. Words by Loreana Rushe, photos by Sara Marsden and Pedro Giaquinto. Olympia Theatre, Dublin You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the early 2000s. A time when dragging the hems of extremely wide trousers adorned with bike chains through puddles was a given and people were daft enough to spend money on Limp Bizkit albums. Mention the term Emo and you’re sure to instigate mockery and jokes about MySpace fringes, but ‘Emotional Hardcore’ is it so widely associated with this image now and a far cry…

  • Doctor Strange

    November 1, 2016 - By 

    Doctor Steven Strange is a brilliant surgeon, and he knows it.  He revels in correcting his co-workers, lives a life of suits, supercars and penthouses and will decline patients if he thinks they will tarnish his perfect success record.  After surviving a horrific car accident his crippled hands hinder him from his life’s work.  His security and livelihood haemorrhaging, he is led to the seedy streets of Kathmandu to find a group of healers who have been known to bring people back from life changing injuries.  It is there that his very strange story truly begins. We open up in…

  • That Snaake – Blinded by the Smell

    November 8, 2016 - By 

    Though they describe themselves as a “4 piece band with 3 capable cyclists”, the primary description that’s been following Dublin’s That Snaake around so far is ‘unfashionable’. That may sound unflattering to some, but really it’s an undeniable positive, setting them well apart from those currently more “fashionable” Irish bands – with current trends leaning towards shiny synths, pop hooks and polished production, That Snaake’s combination of rough and ready guitars and undisciplined vocals that nod to noise-rock and 90s slacker indie do make for a bit of a contrast, but having acts around that rail against what’s currently in…

  • Football As Never Before @ The Strand Arts Centre, Belfast

    November 8, 2016 - By 

    A ninety-minute avant garde documentary about George Best, set to live music and performed in an art deco cinema, might sound like something from the 1970s alternative arts scene, particularly when only one of the footballing superstar’s goals is featured.  But this is Belfast in 2016 and the catalyst for this future-retro Best tribute is Dublin composer/musician Matthew Nolan, who specializes in putting music to silent/avant-garde films. The film in question is “Football Like Never Before”, shot by German film-maker Helmuth Costard in 1970 and released the following year. Eight 16mm cameras tracked Best for the full ninety minutes of…

  • Irish Tour: Buzzcocks

    November 8, 2016 - By 

    2016 sees punk celebrating its 40th anniversary, with bands such as The Undertones and The Damned having already passed through the Academy’s doors this year in celebratory mood. Heck, even the British Library have gotten in on the act by curating an event to mark the milestone of a time when the disgruntled youth of the mid 1970’s finally found a voice via this raucous counter-culture. Having witnessed the Sex Pistols in London during the early part of 1976, Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto travelled back to their native Bolton and formed Buzzcocks. With the release of their debut Spiral…

  • Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise

    November 6, 2016 - By 

    Experimentation has never frightened Mark Cousins. He doesn’t cling to form and narrative the Eway many filmmakers and most of us mere mortals do, instead he challenges the medium and the audience. In Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise he has created a kaleidoscopic visual history of the atomic age that is part music video, part documentary, part avant-garde film, part dream and part nightmare. Accompanied by an illuminating and introspective score from Mogwai, that gives an even greater resonance to the film’s images, the result is pure cinema. Created in 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the bombings…

  • HamsandwicH @ Live at St. Luke’s, Cork

    November 2, 2016 - By 

    Well, that was the best mass I’ve ever been to. St. Luke’s, a former Protestant church just on the northside of Cork City, is quickly becoming one of the premiere live venues in the city. Having entertained with the likes of Lisa Hannigan, Villagers, and Lynched in recent times, the church is building a reputation as a unique host of essential Irish artists. Combine that with the fact that it is the Jazz Weekend, in Cork and you have the potential for quite a raucous evening indeed. Offering support for HamsandwicH tonight is acoustic singer songwriter Sarah Buckley. A local,…

  • Bell X1 – Arms

    November 2, 2016 - By 

    It’s been 16 years since Bell X1 released their severely overlooked debut Neither Am I and began a steady ascent towards their current status as one of Ireland’s most reliable bands.  They’ve existed in a curious niche since their inception, their sound too broad for the quick-fix pop set with whom they found favour with singles such as ‘Rocky Took A Lover’, ‘The Great Defector’ and ‘Velcro’: crowd-pleasers all, but as the trio have grown as musicians, their modus operandi has become more difficult to pin down. They’re much more of an albums band than most people realise, and since…