• Holy Fuck – Congrats

    May 26, 2016 - By 

    Far from being just another band with a sweary name, Holy Fuck were founded on an enticing principle – to make electronic music without the use of modern digital electronic methods (programming, sampling, laptops etc), core members Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh instead utilising various mini keyboards, effects pedals and even film reel and toys (a Speak & Spell being a particular favourite) to create a cacophony of sound, all accompanied by bass and drums. While they’ve always been a must-see live act, even earning the praise of a certain Lou Reed, their ability to progress over their first three albums without straying far from those methods…

  • PORTS – The Devil is a Songbird

    May 26, 2016 - By 

    ‘Luck’ is a funny old thing, especially in the often unforgiving world of music, although at the start of 2013, Derry’s Little Bear seemed to very much have it on their side. A bout of acute laryngitis in Two Door Cinema Club’s Alex Trimble saw Little Bear step in at the eleventh hour to replace the Bangor indie-poppers at 2013’s Other Voice’s Festival, and their show-stealing set paved the way for massive critical acclaim and a set of huge shows in Belfast’s Limelight and their home town’s Nerve Centre. Luck seemed to turn the other way fairly promptly though, as the band watched the support act…

  • My Tribe Your Tribe – Loyalties

    May 25, 2016 - By 

    Hailing from Kildare, My Tribe Your Tribe – not to be confused with I Have a Tribe – are expanding their fan base after an impressively productive 2015. The self-professed alt-rock trio, comprised of George Mercer, Tod Doyle and Colm Daffy, have continued to build the foundations of a promising trajectory, their songs steadily finding their way as the unique blueprint of My Tribe Your Tribe’s sound. Earlier this month they released their debut EP, Loyalties, a darkly melodic collection of compositions that are not entirely expected to co-exist, yet simultaneously work together. It is hard to comprehensively retrace the…

  • X-Men: Apocalypse

    May 23, 2016 - By 

    Marvel’s X-Men comics sometimes led with a cheeky fake-out to tease the reader. We open in media res, our mutant heroes pitched in desperate battle against some foe. They’re battered and bruised. They’ve suffered casualties. And right before the moment of defeat, when all is seemingly lost, the scene fades away, leaving the super-powered faculty panting in an empty steel-blue hangar. It’s the Danger Room, the mansion’s holographic training facility. Cyclops, Iceman and co. were never in danger; the stakes weren’t real. X-Men: Apocalypse, the third film in the franchise’s origin reboot, is one long Danger Room scenario, a frictionless…

  • Ciaran Lavery – Let Bad In

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    With his rumpled suit, rural back-story, and battered guitar, not to mention the genre-hopping back catalogue and considerable streaming success it appears to be so far, so peak-beard for Ciaran Lavery. On his second full-length album Let Bad In, the Aghagallon singer-songwriter seamlessly welds together hip-hop beats, chamber balladry and soulful pop across ten addictively melodic tracks that demand repeated plays. This genre-hopping could sound calculating and impersonal but the album is more than held together by that glorious voice. Lavery’s enunciated delivery on album highlight ‘Return to Form’ transforms into a soulful rasp by the time the chorus comes round. This…

  • Mark Pritchard – Under the Sun

    May 19, 2016 - By 

    Over the course of two decades and with a myriad of monikers under the bridge, Mark Pritchard’s albums, short releases and collaborations have ventured from genre to genre with consistent zeal and originality. From his early ambient work with Tom Middleton as Global Communications to his equally dizzying veers into footwork, hip-hop, house, and grime, Pritchard’s music has been defined by its subtle complexity and shifts in identity and artistic base. Since 2013 however, Pritchard has settled for his releases being put out under his own name; something which, despite seeming like but a small change, has led to a…

  • Islands – Taste

    May 18, 2016 - By 

    From the ashes of The Unicorns came Islands, one sonically eccentric band’s demise giving rise to a new vehicle for mainstay Nick Thorburn’s endless imagination for quirky melodies and wry lyricism. Taste marks the sixth album for the band, but what is most remarkable about this release is that it’s being released simultaneously with their seventh album, Should I Remain Here At Sea? – our review of which you can read here. So, two records, one release date; the former an exploration of synth-based electro pop, the latter an indie pop record more in keeping with Islands’ invigorating debut album from 2006. Drum machines, programming and…

  • Islands – Should I Remain Here at Sea?

    May 18, 2016 - By 

    It was a bittersweet thing when The Unicorns disbanded in 2004 after releasing one of the most fun records by anyone, ever. The trio’s paths diverged. Alden Penner trucked on as a solo artist before forming Clues a few years later, while Nicholas Thorburn and Jamie Thompson kept ‘er lit, forming two groups at once – the short-lived hip-hop outfit Th’ Corn Gangg, and Islands. One thing that was clear from Islands’ debut Return To The Sea and their subsequent run of records was that The Unicorns’ eccentricities, about-turns, and canny knack for an earworm were as much down to his colleagues – and Thorburn in…

  • Courtney Pine & Zoe Rahman @ Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    It’s not exactly a shocking revelation to say that jazz can be a ludicrously self-reverential medium, especially given the insular virtuosity required to play it to a world-class degree, so it’s pleasant that tonight, under this starry-ceilinged festival marquee, that Courtney Pine maintains a balanced composure; one that allows for moments of wild, wandering timbres but also gentle interplay with Zoe Rahman’s fervent piano playing. A courteous guest, Pine lays on the thanks thick and fast for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival organisers, prompting agreement from a largely excitable crowd who rightly recognise that jazz in Belfast isn’t exactly the…

  • White Lung – Paradise

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    In recent years, there is a marked shift in the ideal of pop-punk. What was once a, pretty justifiably, derided sub-genre, now has an odd cult-like following surrounding it. Swing over to Tumblr and see a devotion that seems so alien for a musical classification who shining stars are Blink 182, Sum 41 and Green Day. Fun bands in their own right but they’re not the kind who’d inspire Rush levels of dedication. Within that too there is an idea that this category is under some kind of threat that it needs to be “defended”. But what’s so odd is…